MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 


MANUAL  of 
NATURAL  EDUCATION 


By 
WINIFRED  SACKVILLE  STONER 

AUTHOR  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 


With  Diagrams  and  Illustrations 


INDIANAPOLIS 

THE  BOBBS-MERRILL  COMPANY 
PUBLISHERS 


COPYRIGHT  1916 
THE  BOBBS-MERRILL  COMPANY 


PRESS    OF 

BRAUNWORTH    fc    CO. 

BOOK    MANUFACTURERS 

BROOKLYN,    N.    Y. 


WITH  A  HEART  FULL  OP  LOVE 

I  DEDICATE  THIS  BOOK  TO  FATHERS,  MOTHERS,  TEACHERS 
AND  OUR  FUTURE  CITIZENS 

THE  CHILDREN 


355245 


This  book  has  been  written  to  be  used  in 
connection  with  Natural  Education,  telling 
the  story  of  how  I  educated  my  child, 
and  Facts  in  Jingles,  giving  educational 
and  humorous  jingles. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I    WHAT  Is  NATURAL  EDUCATION 1 

The  Principles  of  Natural  Education— Ob- 
jects  of  Natural  Education — Real  Education, 
Not  Merely  for  Diplomas  and  Degrees— No 
One  Can  Be  Thoroughly  Educated— EDUCA- 
TION Must  Continue  Through  Life— Getting 
a  Diploma  Is  Not  Education — Too  Many 
OLOGIES  and  ISMS— What  Should  Be 
Learned  in  College— Why  Education  Is  Dis- 
liked—The First  Public  Schools— Seven  Step- 
ping Stones  to  Success — Heredity  and  Envi- 
ronment—Mothers' Duties— When  to  Educate 
a  Child— What  We  Are— Statistics  Concern- 
ing First-Borns— Aim  to  Help  the  "Bright 
Child"— To  Help  Schools  and  Teachers-^ 
Children  Not  Made  Democratic  by  Public 
Schools— Mental  Development  With  Physical 
—Cruelty  to  Babies — Lack  of  Observation — 
Nature  Abhors  a  Vacuum — Brain  Doubles  in 
Children  Between  the  Ages  of  Two  and  a 
Half  and  Three  Years — Naughtiness  but  Mis- 
directed Energy — Mothers  Cause  of  War — 
Monument  for  Constructive  Genius — Thomas 
A.  Edison — Over-development  of  Mind — Ef- 
fects of  the  Rod  and  Constant  Preaching — 
Moderation  in  All  Things — Well-balanced  Par- 
ents and  Happy  Children — Normal  Children 
Blessed  With  Talents— Great  Men  Showed 
Tendencies  in  Youth — No  Mind  Injured  if 
Child  Be  Interested — Must  a  Genius  Be  Queer 
—Jack  of  All  Trades-^-Master  of  One— Fear 
Cause  of  Half  Earth's  Woes — Doing  Away 
With  Examinations — Three  Substitutes — Op- 
posed to  Diagraming — Schools  for  Parents — 
Children  Should  Rest  in  Adolescent  Period— 


CONTENTS— Continued 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

Winifred  Now  in  Chrysalis  Time  of  Life — 
Long  Vacations — Education,  Nourishing  Fluid 
of  Existence — Children  Take  Pleasure  in  Ac- 
complishment —  Doctor  Philander  Claxton's 
Opinion — Games  to  Educate — Music  Is  Moral 
Law — Expression  Instead  of  Repression — The 
Child's  Age— Doctor  0' Shea's  Opinion— Phil- 
ips Brooks'  Opinion — Daniel  Webster's  Opin- 
ion— David  Starr  Jordan's  Opinion — Fairy  In- 
terest in  Schoolroom — Follow  Ruskin's  Advice 
—The  Big  Aim  of  NATURAL  EDUCATION. 

II  THE  NATURAL  EDUCATION  BOOK  SHELF  ...  32 
The  Book  of  Knowledge — Natural  Education 
and  other  books  in  the  Childhood  and  Youth 
Series — The  New  Standard  Dictionary— Peter 
Rabbit— O'Shea,  Old  World  Wonders  and 
Nursery  Classics — The  Jatakas  Tales  of  India 
MD'Shea-Kellogg  Health  Series— Bulfinch's 
Age  of  Fable — Asgard  Tales — Patrino  An- 
serino  (or  Mother  Goose  in  Esperanto}  — 
Historical  Mother  Goose — Hornbrook's  Book 
on  Mathematics  —  Facts  in  Jingles  —  Play 
Songs  (Bentley) — Chansons'  Poesies  et  Jeux 
— Jason's  Quest — Stories  the  Iroquois  Tell 
Their  Children— Questions  Asked  by  Children 
Which  Are  Answered  in  Some  of  the  Books 
Listed — Good  Books  for  ,Parents  to  Read  so 
as  to  Give  Health  and  Strength  to  Their 
Children — Good  Books  to  Develop  the  Imagi- 
nation—Useful Tools  in  Learning  Esperanto. 

Ill  How  TO  USE  NATURAL  EDUCATIONAL  TOOLS  .  .  39 
Natural  Educational  Tools  for  the  Mothers' 
Use  in  First  Year— Second  Year— Third  Year 
—Fourth  Year— Fifth  Year— Sixth  Year— Not 
All  Tools  Necessary  But  All  Useful— Ball  the 
Best  Toy— Learn  to  Scan  With  a  Ball— Bounc- 
ing Ball  Useful  in  Teaching  Counting— The 
Balloon,  Baby's  First  Toy— Give  Babies  Love 


CONTENTS— Continued 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

and  Amusement — Amuse  With  Prism  or  Mir- 
ror—Bells of  Different  Tones  and  Sleigh-Bells 
—No  Children  Naturally  Tone  Deaf— Use  of  a 
Silver  Dollar— Celluloid  Doll— Sand  Box— Al- 
phabet and  Number  Blocks— Top — Noah's  Ark 
—  Bradley's  Villages  —  Paper  Toys  — Use  of 
Scissors — No  Apparatus  Necessary  to  Teach 
Buttoning — The  Chautauqua  Industrial  Art 
Desk— Colored  Pictures— Box  of  Small  Arti- 
cles— Wotsat — Games  Invented  by  Adelia 
Hornbrook  to  Use  With  Small  Objects- 
Making  Designs  With  Objects— The  Sayre 
Method  of  Drawing — Pets — My  Wonderful 
Canary  —  Okikusan  —  An  Aquarium  —  Stereo- 
scope— The  Victrola  or  Sonora — Child  Furni- 
ture —  Unsympathetic  Parents  —  Keeping  the 
Playroom  in  Order— Plasticine— A  Natural 
Educational  Tree — A  Drum — Beads — Lotto-— 
Parcheesi — Dice — Dominoes — Maps — Dissected 
Maps— What  Billy  Walsh  Does  With  the 
United  States  Map — Marbles — Jackstraws — 
Magnet — Perry  Prints— Abacus — Magnify  ing- 
Glass — Tape  Line,  Ruler,  Yard  Stick — Gold 
and  Silver  Stars — Xylophone — Kodak — Scrap 
Book — Keeping  a  Diary — Gymnasium  in  the 
Home — Rocking  Horse — Paper  Dolls,  Cellu- 
loid and  Rag  Dolls — Stuffed  Animals — Toy 
Stores,  Banks,  etc.— Household  Toys— Tea 
Sets — Curios — Coins—  Centaphrase  and  Span- 
ish Games— Language  Phone  Records— The 
Candoit  Toys — Louise  Brigham's  Box  Furni- 
ture— The  Cincinnati  Educational  Card  Games 
—The  Typewriter,  Best  Tool  of  All. 

IV    TRAINING  THE  PHYSICAL  PART  OF  THE  CHILD'S 

TRINITY 81 

Most  Important  to  Have  a  Healthy  Body— ; 
Prenatal  Influences — Preparation  of  Nursery— • 
Exercise  With  a  Stick — Sense  Training — First 


CONTENTS— Continued 
CHAPTER  PAGE 

Lessons  in  Ball  Playing — Nurse  Baby  if  Pos- 
sible— Mother  First  Teacher  and  Nurse — Train 
Mind  in  Cradle — Training  Baby  to  Take  Care 
of  Body — Parents  Patterns  for  Children. 

V    CHARACTER  BUILDING 86 

The  Power  of  "Character"— What  Doctor 
John  W.  Carr  Says — My  Ten  Commandments 
— Never  Give  Corporal  Punishment — Never 
Scold— Never  Say  "Don't"— Never  say  "Must" 
^Never  Allow  a  Child  to  Say  "I  Can't"— 
Never  Refuse  to  Answer  a  Child's  Questions 
—Never  Frighten  a  Child— Never  Ridicule  or 
Tease  a  Child— Never  Allow  a  Child  to  Lose 
Self-Respect  or  Respect  for  his  Parents— 
Never  Banish  Fairies  from  Home,  the  Most 
Attractive  Spot  on  Earth— Character  Develop- 
ment Chart. 

VI    REQUIREMENTS     FOR     NATURAL     EDUCATIONAL 

SCHOOLS 95 

The  Great  Aim  to  Prepare  for  PARENT- 
HOOD—Schools  Like  Homes— Good  Pictures 
—Curio  Cabinet— Dynamic  Instead  of  Static 
Schoolroom  —  Following  Japanese  Customs  — 
Books  on  Window  Seats — Interest  in  Plants — 
Live  Things — Use  of  Victrola  or  Sonora — 
Candoit  Toys  —  Fairy  Typewriter  —  Seeking 
Knowledge — Teaching  Abhorrence  of  War — 
Peace  Tongue  or  Esperanto — Individual  Train- 
ing— Rewards  and  Punishments — Developing 
the  Imagination  Above  Everything— Teaching 
Children  to  Draw — No  Examinations — General 
Information  Books  —  Moving  Pictures  —  No 
Patent  on  Natural  Educational  Tools. 

VII    TEACHING  THE  CHILD  TO  READ,  SPELL,  PUNCTU- 
ATE AND  RHYME 106 

Teaching  Children  the  Letters  of  the  Alphabet 
—Using  Red  Glazed  Letters  on  a  White  Back- 


CONTENTS— Continued 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

ground — 'Word  Families — The  "At"  Family — 
Buzzing  Bee  Spelling  Game— Anagrams— Use 
of  Typewriter— Two-Year-Old  Children  Writ- 
ing on  Typewriter— Typewriter  a  Substitute 
for  Grammar  and  Spelling  Book — The  Word 
"CAT"  a  Good  Beginning— Singing  With  the 
Typewriter  as  a  Musical  Instrument — Punctua- 
tion Taught  on  Typewriter — Reading  With 
Expression— Mark  Unfamiliar  Words— Direct 
the  Child's  Reading— Too  Much  Reading-^Lit- 
erary  Goodies  Book— Keeping  Personal  Note- 
Books  and  Dairies — Teaching  Children  to 
Make  Rhymes  —  Rhyming  Games  —  List  of 
Rhyming  Words — Rhymes  Made  at  the  New 
York  Scudder  School  of  Natural  Education. 

VIII    GAINING  A  PRACTICAL  KNOWLEDGE  OF  MATHE- 
MATICS THROUGH  GAMES 119 

Mathematics  Often  a  Tear-Bringing  Science—- 
Not Necessary  to  Work  Many  Problems-^ 
Teaching  All  Branches  of  This  Science  at  One 
Time — Making  Geometrical  Designs — First  Les- 
sons in  Counting— My  Debt  to  Adelia  Horn- 
brook— The  Happy  Learning  of  Mathematics 
— Teaching  Prime  and  Composite  Numbers—? 
The  Game  of  Witch— Charts  to  Teach  Num- 
bers—Charts to  Teach  Fractions  and  Decimals 
s — Teaching  Odd  and  Even  Numbers — Game  to 
Learn  Odd  and  Even  Numbers— Teaching 
Foreign  Currency — To  Learn  the  Value  of 
Money— Using  Real  Coins— Lack  of  Financial 
Training — Children  Taught  Use  of  Money— a 
Teaching  Roman  Numbers  —  Lotto  —  Dice-^ 
Game  With  Throwing  Large  Dice— Abacus- 
Mathematics  in  Daily  Occupations — Music  in 
Mathematics  r— Games  With  Toothpicks  and 
Jackstraws— Designs  Showing  the  Hexagon- 
Designs  Showing  the  Pentagon  <—  Making 
Cathedral  Windows. 


CONTENTS— Continued 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

IX  TEACHING  NATURAL  HISTORY  AND  BOTANY  .  .  139 
Natural  History  Made  a  Delight — Writing 
Stories  About  Animals — Children  Love  Ani- 
mals— Hugh  Worthington  a  Naturalist  at  Four 
Years— A  Dog  the  Child's  Truest  Friend- 
Taught  to  Care  for  Birds — Botany  Fascinating 
to  Little  Children— Jingles  Helpful— Story  of 
the  Magnolia. 

X    TEACHING  CORRECT  SPEECH     . 145 

Herbert  Spencer's  Opinion  of  How  to  Speak 
Good  English — Judged  by  the  Language  We 
Use— Rules  and  Diagrams  Do  Not  Teach  Cor- 
rect Speaking — Use  of  a  Typewriter  to  Teach 
English — Tongue  Slip  Chart — Game  of  the 
Wise  and  Foolish— The  Language  House. 

XI  TEACHING  HISTORY  AND  LITERATURE  ....  151 
History  Made  a  Delight— Paper  Dolls  Help- 
Reading  for  a  Purpose — Card  Games — Plu- 
tarch's Lives  —  English  History  —  Teaching 
Facts  in  History  Through  Jingles— Teaching 
Children  of  the  Lives  and  Works  of  Great 
People. 

XII    TEACHING  GEOGRAPHY 159 

First  Lessons  in  Sand— Teaching  About  Hol- 
land— Dissected  Maps — Games  With  Maps—: 
Other  Games  —  Esperanto  —  Jingles  —  Scrap 
Books — Walks — Writing  Descriptions  of  What 
Has  Been  Seen  —  Teaching  About  India  — 
Learning  Mathematical  Truths  Through  Mt 
Everest — A  Lesson  About  Climates — Lesson 
Dealing  With  Zoology  —  Moral  Lessons  — 
Learning  About  the  Principal  Cities  of  India 
— Story  of  Taj  Mahal — Stories  About  Indigo, 
Cotton,  Tobacco,  Tea,  Rubies,  Copper,  Tin, 
Lead,  Mahogany,  Teakwood,  Bamboo,  Ebony, 
Sandalwood,  Zebu,  Mangoes,  Sugar,  Silk, 
Rice,  Ganges,  Durbar— Spelling  INDIA— 
Story  of  Little  Black  Quibba. 


CONTENTS— Continued 
CHAPTER  PAGE 

XIII  TEACHING  Music 174 

No  Appreciation  of  Tone  Beauty— Mistake  to 
Force  Children  to  Practise— Use  "Pieces"  In- 
stead of  Exercises— Victrola  and  Sonora— 
Teach  About  Piano— Mothers  Playing  for 
Children— Cat  in  the  Corner— No  One  Method 
—Through  the  Ear— Expression  in  Harmonies 
— The  Mothers'  Magazine—How  Music  Helps 
—Doctor  Hirshberg— First  Hear  Sounds- 
Winifred's  Teacher  Matilda  Orr  Hays— Let 
Nature  Help— Lives  of  Masters  in  Jingles. 

XIV  IMPORTANCE  OF  THE  STUDY  OF  LATIN     ....     184 

Latin  the  Basis  for  Language  Study— Relation 
of  Latin  to  Practical  Life — Frances  Ellis  Sabin 
and  Laura  B.  Woodruff  on  Practical  Latin — 
Putting  Children  to  Sleep  With  Vergil's 
2Eneid  —  Teaching  Latin  Phrases  —  Expres- 
sions in  Latin  to  Be  Learned  in  Childhood 
Days— Teaching  the  Child  to  Form  Simple 
Latin  Sentences— Playing  Dinner  Party— Play- 
ing Zoo — Teaching  Scanning  With  a  Ball — 
Declensions  in  Rhythmic  Exercises — Teaching 
Etymology  and  Philology  —  The  Nutting 
Primer— Excellent  Tools  for  the  Study  of 
Latin. 

XV    TEACHING  ESPERANTO 195 

Goethe's  Opinion  of  People  Who  Know  No 
Foreign  Tongues— Language  Taught  by  Natu- 
ral Method — Esperanto  in  Cradle — Two-thirds 
of  Our  Lives  Required  to  Learn  Languages — 
Need  of  an  International  Tongue — Peter  the 
Great  Saw  Need  of  Esperanto — Volapiik,  the 
Nightmare  Tongue — Wars  Caused  by  Lingual 
Misunderstanding — Praise  of  Esperanto — No 
Difference  in  Accent  —  Simple  Verbs  —  Like 
Spanish — Jingle  to  Teach  Esperanto — Simple 
rules  to  Remember  in  Teaching  Esperanto— A 
Help  in  Teaching  Latin— What  Doctor  D.  O. 


CONTENTS-Continued 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

S.  Lowell  Thinks  of  Esperanto  as  a  Language 
Builder. 

XVI    TEACHING  APPRECIATION  OF  ART 204 

How  Art  Is  Introduced  Into  North  Carolina 
Schools  by  Doctor  John  J.  Blair — Perry  Print 
Scrap  Books — Tracing — Making  Designs — The 
Sayre  Method  a  Great  Help — Visiting  Art  Mu- 
seums—The Mirrorscope— Game  of  What  Is  It 
— Pencils  Not  for  Scribbling — Designs  With 
Sticks — Drawing  in  Sand — The  Chautauqua 
Desk  a  Help — Drawing  Encourages  Expres- 
sion— Kate  Douglas  Wiggin  on  Purpose  of 
Drawing. 

XVII    DEVELOPING  THE  IMAGINATION  AND  A  SENSE  OF 

HUMOR 211 

Imagination  Above  Everything — Imagination 
and  Cold  Facts — Imagination  Transfigures — 
Arousing  Imagination — Smiles  Go  Miles — De- 
veloping a  Sense  of  Humor — A  Real  Grouch 
Bug — Doctor  John  Brashear  as  a  Scientist  and 
Humorist  —  Laughter  Contagious  —  Nonsense 
Rhymes  —  Smiles  Bring  Big  Returns  —  The 
motto  of  Natural  Education,  SMILE. 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 


MANUAL  OF 
NATURAL  EDUCATION 

CHAPTER  I 

WHAT  IS  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

The  Principles  of  Natural  Education  Arc 

1.  Education  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave. 

2.  Training  for  parenthood. 

3.  Development   of   the   child's   mental-physical- 

spiritual  trinity  in  the  cradle. 

4.  Development  of  every  normal  child's  talent  by 

the  parent. 

5.  Children  taught  how  to  play  to  a  purpose. 

6.  Development  of  the  five  senses  to  serve  as 

body  protectors. 

7.  Children  encouraged  to  use  nature's  informa- 

tion seeker — the  question. 

8.  Parents  encouraged  to  answer  children's  ques- 

tions. 

9.  Developing  the  imaginative  or  creative  faculty 

above  everything. 

10.    Using    MOTHER    NATURE    as    the    first 
teacher. 

1 


2   MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

11.  Encouraging  expression  instead  of  repression. 

12.  Encouraging  children  to  teach  what  they  have 

been  taught. 

13.  Training  each  child  as  an  individual  and  not  in 

a  class. 

14.  Giving   children   constructive   instead    of   de- 

structive toys  and  teaching  them  to  admire 
the  giver  of  life  rather  than  the  taker. 

15.  Filling  the  child's  mind  with  beautiful  thoughts 

in  the  memory  period  (five  to  twelve)  so 
that  when  the  age  of  reason  begins  at  twelve 
years  he  will  have  something  upon  which  to 
reason. 

16.  Teaching  all  languages  by  the  natural  method 

before  the  twelfth  year. 

17.  Developing    the     rhythmic     instinct    through 

EURHYTHMICS. 

18.  Teaching  music  through  training  of  the  ear 

before  the  eye. 

19.  Teaching  important  facts  through  jingles. 

20.  Giving  practical  knowledge  to  make  efficient 

citizens. 

21.  Doing  away  with  examinations  through  using 

the  BOOK  OF  KNOWLEDGE. 

22.  Giving  teachers  higher  salaries,  shorter  hours 

and  fewer  pupils. 

23.  Encouraging    the    nurturing    instinct    in    the 

young  through  making  gardens  and  taking 
care  of  younger  children. 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION   3 

24.  Using  ESPERANTO  to  teach  the  roots  of 

modern  languages  and  to  provide  each  child 
with  an  international  medium  of  communi- 
cation. 

25.  Teaching  how  to  read,  spell,  punctuate,  speak 

good  English  and  memorize  via  TYPE- 
WRITER. 

26.  Keeping  the   fairies,   LOVE,    SYMPATHY, 

GOOD  CHEER,  in  the  home  and  school. 

27.  Banishing  the  demons,   HURRY,   WORRY, 

FEAR. 

28.  Obliterating    "I    CAN'T'*    from    vocabularies 

and  using  "I'LL  TRY." 

29.  Having  high  ideals. 

30.  Laying  the  five  foundation  stones  of  educa- 

tion, OBSERVATION,  INTENSE  IN- 
TEREST, CONCENTRATION,  IMITA- 
TION, EXPLORATION,  and  seeking  to 
become  educated  in  the  highest  sense  through 
learning  SELF-CONTROL  and  the  JOY 
OF  SERVICE. 

The  Objects  of  Natural  Education  Are:  To 
found  Parent-Teacher  Natural  Education  Circles  so 
as  to  bring  fathers,  mothers,  teachers  and  children 
together  in  an  atmosphere  of  love  and  sympathy, 
where  fathers  as  well  as  mothers  and  teachers  will 
have  an  opportunity  to  express  their  opinions  con- 
cerning child  training;  and  where  the  children  will 
help  teachers  show  parents  how  to  give  instruction. 


[ANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

To  establish  schools  for  parenthood  training  in 
every  university  and  to  give  instruction  concerning 
mental-physical-moral  training  of  children  in  public 
schools  and  social  centers. 

To  make  the  acquisition  of  an  education  a  joy 
through  play  to  a  purpose. 

To  teach  self-control  and  the  joy  of  service. 

To  make  efficient  citizens  through  practical  edu- 
cation. 

To  make  love  and  interest  rulers  of  home  and 
school. 

Some  people  believe  that  education  consists  in 
going  for  a  certain  number  of  years  to  schools  and 
colleges,  thereby  winning  diplomas  and  degrees.  I 
have  no  more  faith  in  "sheepskins"  as  evidence  of 
education  than  the  young  theologian  named  Fiddle 
.who  refused  to  accept  a  degree,  for,  said  he,  "  Tis 
enough  to  be  Fiddle  without  being  Fiddle,  D.  D." 

Recently  one  of  the  so-called  educated  men  who 
was  a  college  graduate  and  could  speak  a  number 
of  languages  was  arrested  in  Boston  as  a  vagrant. 
He  complained  bitterly  against  his  Alma  Mater's 
lack  of  preparing  students  for  practical  work  and 
said :  "After  I  have  become  thoroughly  educated  I 
can  not  earn  as  good  a  living  as  an  uneducated 
cobbler." 

Can  any  one  become  thoroughly  educated  ?  Does 
making  our  minds  the  storehouse  of  other  people's 
lumber  educate  us  ? 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION   5 

Education   Must  Continue  Through   Life. — 

Education  began  when  the  first  man  took  his  first 
deep  breath  and  performed  a  conscious  act  in  wrig- 
gling his  fingers.  Education  will  continue  as  long 
as  there  is  life.  "We  can  not,"  as  Carlyle  said, 
"stand  still.  We  must  either  progress  or  retro- 
grade." This  is  not  a  finished  world.  It  is  but  a 
place  which  we  can  improve  as  we  improve  our- 
selves. 

Getting  a  Diploma  Is  Not  Education. — Gain- 
ing a  diploma  does  not  prove  that  our  education  is 
finished,  but  rather  that  we  have  been  shown  the 
proper  pathways  leading  to  knowledge  so  that  we 
may  explore  for  ourselves. 

Too  Many  Ologies  and  Isms. — I  am  not  criti- 
cizing schools  and  colleges,  but  I  believe  with  Doc- 
tor O'Shea  that  only  about  three  per  cent,  of  col- 
lege students  get  the  full  benefits  for  which  colleges 
were  created.  I  believe  also  that  we  spend  too 
much  time  in  studying  "OLOGIES"  and  "ISMS" 
when  we  should  be  gaining  practical  knowledge  to 
help  make  us  efficient  citizens ;  and  above  all  should 
be  learning  the  art  of  what  Doctor  Stanley  Hall 
calls  "Good  parenthood,  supreme  end  of  man." 

What  Should  Be  Learned  in  College. — Quot- 
ing again  from  America's  most  popular  educator, 
Doctor  O'Shea,  I  believe  that  college  students 
should  learn  how  to  become  good  parents  through 
courses  relating  to  the  nature  and  training  of  chil- 
jiren,  the  values  of  food  and  methods  of  making  it 


6   MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

suitable  for  and  acceptable  to  persons  of  different 
physical  needs;  the  arrangement,  decoration  and 
sanitation  of  a  house;  and  the  financial,  social  and 
economic  conditions  of  life,  in  addition  to  knowing 
something  about  history,  the  arts,  sciences  and  an- 
cient and  modern  languages. 

At  the  present  day  there  is  much  talk  concerning 
the  lack  of  efficiency  among  our  men  and  women. 
There  are  greater  educational  facilities  than  the 
world  has  ever  known  and  yet  fewer  great  men  and 
women.  So-called  education  is  despised  by  children 
and  few  of  the  rising  generation  delight  in  going  to 
educational  institutions. 

Why  Education  Is  Disliked.— Why  should  a 
good  thing  like  education  be  so  generally  disliked 
among  the  young? 

Because  we  are  killing  the  imagination  and  striv- 
ing to  educate  the  world  as  masses  instead  of  indi- 
viduals. Parents  are  neglecting  to  perform  their 
duties  to  little  ones  by  giving  children  their  first 
mental-physical-moral  training  long  before  the 
school  age  begins.  They  wait  until  a  child  reaches 
the  age  of  six  years  and  then  hand  him  over  to  the 
state  for  character  training  as  well  as  instruction 
in  arithmetic,  reading  and  writing. 

The  First  Public  Schools.— China  had  the  first 
public  schools  in  the  whole  world,  but  she  did  not 
advance  as  an  enlightened  nation  because  all  instruc- 
tion in  the  schools  was  given  after  the  age  of  six 
years  and  to  boys  only.  The  mothers  could  not 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION    7 


Of  A  SQUARE 


VJo  OF  A 

SQUARE 


*Ao  OF  A  SQUARE 


Made  by  Winifred  to  teach  her  pupils  geometrical  figures  and  fractions 

train  these  boys  in  the  cradle  because  they  them- 
selves had  received  no  training.  The  best  part  of 
the  child's  life  was  thus  lost,  since  character  must  be 
formed  while  the  mind  is  like  wax  in  babyhood. 


8   MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

Seven  Stepping  Stones  to  Success. — There  are 
seven  stepping  stones  to  building  a  child  into  a 
tower  of  success.  These  are  heredity,  environment, 
health,  character,  equipment,  ambition  and  reward. 
All  of  these  stones  may  be  laid  for  little  ones  by 
parents  in  comfortable  circumstances  if  these  par- 
ents prepare  for  parenthood  in  their  early  youth  and 
provide  proper  environment  during  their  children's 
babyhood  days. 

Heredity  and  Environment. — Luther  Burbank 
believes  that  only  through  selection  of  the  best  in- 
dividuals through  a 'long  series  of  generations  can 
any  race  of  plants,  animals  or  men  be  permanently 
improved.  I  believe  with  Mr.  Burbank  in  the  power 
of  heredity,  but  this  great  building  stone  must  be 
supported  by  another  just  as  important — that  of 
environment.  The  two  work  together  like  two 
blades  of  a  pair  of  shears.  One  is  helpless  with- 
out the  other.  We  can  take  the  most  beautiful  and 
most  perfect  plant  and  put  it  in  non-productive  soil 
where  it  will  lose  all  its  beauty. 

The  little  country  of  Greece  produced  more  great 
men  during  one  century  than  all  other  countries  01 
the  world  because  her  mothers  believed  in  prenatal 
influence  and  the  power  of  environment. 

Doctor  Kellogg  says  that  the  world  is  in  crying 
need  of  a  new  aristocracy  of  Apollos  and  Venuses; 
whereas,  instead,  we  are  building  up  a  nation  of 
"lunatics,  idiots,  paupers  and  criminals  which  cost 
the  government  over  one  hundred  million  dollars  a 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION   9 

year,  and  who  are  repeopling  the  earth  with  their 
kind  and  even  helping  to  make  the  laws  of  our 
land." 

Mothers'  Duties. — We  mothers  must  awake  to 
our  responsibilities.  We  must  fight  with  sane  men 
who  are  striving  to  make  laws  so  that  abnormal  be- 
ings can  not  become  parents.  We  must  strive  to 
shield  our  boys  from  the  world  even  as  we  have 
shielded  our  girls  so  that  both  may  come  to  the 
altar  with  clean  wholesome  bodies.  We  must  fight 
the  * 'black  plague"  even  as  we  fight  tuberculosis — 
in  the  open.  We  must  not  laugh  at  men's  wild  oats, 
but  rather  shudder  at  them  and  protect  our  daugh- 
ters from  marrying  men  "who  have  gone  the  pace." 

When  to  Educate  a  Child.— Oliver  Wendell 
Holmes  said  that  the  time  to  educate  a  child  was 
three  hundred  years  before  his  birth.  Not  all  of  us 
can  count  our  education  from  that  date,  but  if  we 
are  to  have  a  better  race  of  men  and  women  our 
schools  and  colleges  must  begin  now — to-day — to 
give  coufses  in  parenthood  whereby  young  men  and 
young  women  will  be  taught  how  to  care  for  their 
bodies  and  minds  so  that  they  may  become  healthy 
parents  and  know  how  to  care  for  the  children  who 
bless  their  union. 

What  We  Are.— 

We  are  what  we  eat  and  drink ; 
Also  what  we  breathe  and  think. 

And,  oh,  how  much  is  involved  in  this  training 


10   MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

which  must  be  done  by  parents  while  their  children 
are  in  the  cradle. 

Statistics  Concerning  First-borns. — Statistics 
concerning  the  mortality  and  mental  inferiority  of 
first-born  children  are  appalling.  In  Africa  it  is 
almost  invariably  the  rule  that  the  first-born  child 
dies.  In  America  one  out  of  every  nine  first-borns 
is  claimed  by  death. 

Why  should  the  first  baby  born  of  parents  in  the 
first  years  of  marriage,  when  life  is  said  to  be  like 
"one  grand  sweet  song,"  be  inferior  to  its  broth- 
ers and  sisters?  Because  young  parents  must  use 
the  first  baby  as  an  experiment.  If  he  survives, 
they  know  something  about  caring  for  infants  and 
do  better  with  "Number  Two." 

Surely  through  proper  education  we  can  help 
young  parents  to  know  how  to  care  for  the  first- 
born children  even  as  well  as  the  second-  or  third^ 
born. 

Aim  to  Help  the  "Bright  Child."— Another  ob- 
ject of  natural  education  is  to  help  the  so-called 
"bright  child."  Our  public  schools  are  organized  to 
help  the  ordinary  kiddies.  There  are  plenty  of  sys- 
tems to  help  defectives,  but  nothing  is  being  done 
to  help  the  supernormal  child  climb  to  heights  of 
fame.  That  is  why  we  have  so  few  great  literary 
lights  to  make  our  age  shine  with  the  Elizabethan 
and  Victorian  eras.  It  is  not  because  fewer  intel- 
lectual giants  are  born,  but  because  our  "en  masse" 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION   11 

ideas  of  education  are  killing  originality  and  the 
spark  of  real  genius  or  imagination. 

In  many  of  our  public  schools  all  three  classes  of 
children  must  travel  together.  They  may  be  com- 
pared to  a  worn-out  old  plug  horse,  an  ordinary 
roadster  and  a  high-stepping  race-horse.  The  race- 
horse can  not  win  because  he  is  held  back  by  the 
inferior  steeds. 

To  Help  Schools  and  Teachers. — I  am  not 
talking  against  schools  or  school-teachers.  They 
are  doing  glorious  work  in  the  world.  Any  kind 
of  school  is  better  than  none.  But  if  we  could  have 
schools  with  not  over  ten  pupils  in  a  room,  could 
pay  our  teachers  respectable  salaries  and  give  them 
shorter  hours  so  that  they  would  have  time  to  enjoy 
life  and  to  improve  their  own  minds,  oh,  what  a 
glorious  race  of  citizens  Uncle  Sam  would  have  in 
the  next  generation !  They  would  be  "really-truly" 
efficient  men  and  women.  They  would  be  prepared 
to  live  on  life's  highest  plane,  and  would  continue  to 
seek  knowledge  because  they  loved  it,  and  not  be- 
cause they  were  forced  to  go  to  its  founts.  George 
Ade  has  aptly  said,  "You  can  lead  a  boy  to  college, 
but  you  can't  make  him  think." 

In  order  to  bring  about  the  happy  day  when 
school  bells  will  not  be  rung,  but  children  will  run 
to  seats  of  learning  even  as  they  now  go  to  moving 
pictures,  parents  who  can  afford  to  teach  their  chil- 
dren at  home  should  give  this  training  beneath  the 
home  tree  and  thus  relieve  the  congestion  of  the 


12   MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

schoolroom  and  give  poor  people's  children  a  chance 
for  more  air  space  and  individual  training. 

Children  Not  Made  Democratic  by  Public 
Schools. — It  is  all  nonsense  to  say  that  it  makes 
children  democratic  to  go  to  a  public  school.  I  have 
visited  many  public  schools  and  watched  the  chil- 
dren at  play.  The  ragged  urchin  has  no  more 
chance  of  social  equality  with  the  well-dressed  boy 
or  girl  in  school  than  he  has  in  the  home  of  children 
whose  parents  are  in  affluent  circumstances.  Some 
of  the  most  democratic  children  of  my  acquaintance 
have  never  been  inside  of  a  public  school.  Some  of 
the  worst  bits  of  childish  "snobbery"  I  have  encoun- 
tered are  public-school  children  of  well-to-do  par- 
ents. If  we  train  our  children  in  infancy  that  "po- 
liteness is  to  do  and  say  the  kindest  thing  in  the 
kindest  way";  if  we  encourage  them  to  be  little 
knights  and  ladies,  smiling  upon  all  who  cross  their 
pathway,  they  will  always  be  democratic,  e'en 
though  they  may  never  sit  in  the  next  seat  to  an 
unfortunate  lad  afflicted  with  pediculosis.  In  my 
opinion  it  is  somewhat  dangerous  to  risk  the  health 
of  our  children,  who  must  come  in  contact  with  dis- 
eased children,  in  order  to  give  them  a  so-called 
democratic  spirit. 

Mental  Development  with  Physical. — I  be- 
lieve also  that  we  have  been  making  a  big  mistake  in 
the  past  century  through  developing  only  the  phys- 
ical side  of  our  children  in  the  cradle  and  waiting  to 
develop  the  mental  and  moral  after  the  child  attains 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION   13 

a  certain  physical  growth.  In  this  respect  we  are  in- 
ferior to  the  Indian  mother  who  hangs  her  baby  in 
the  tree  where  he  can  hear  the  birds  and  see  beauties 
of  nature  around  him. 

Cruelty  to  Babies. — According  to  the  ordinary- 
physician's  advice  we  put  our  children  in  dark  rooms 
and  let  them  sleep  away  the  early  days  of  their  exist- 
ence so  that  they  may  have  "strong  nerves."  We 
let  them  cry  "for  good  healthy  exercise  and  lung 
development."  We  refrain  from  kissing  and  loving 
our  hearts'  treasures  "for  fear  of  spreading  germs." 
And  thus  we  are  producing  a  race  of  young  sav- 
ages. 

Lack  of  Observation. — I  believe  with  Ruskin 
that  for  one  thousand  people  who  think,  only  one 
observes,  simply  because  of  the  lack  of  sense  train- 
ing in  the  cradle.  Train  your  child  to  go  through 
this  world  with  seeing  eyes  and  hearing  ears. 

Nature  Abhors  a  Vacuum. — Nature  abhors  a 
vacuum,  and  if  you  do  not  put  something  into  the 
mind  that  is  good  and  beautiful  it  will  be  filled  with 
thoughts  which  you  may  not  like,  and  as  you  know, 
early  impressions  are  lasting.  "As  the  twig  is  bent 
the  tree's  inclined." 

A  child  is  a  mass  of  impressions  from  millions 
of  ancestors,  and  as  Maud  Perry  Mills  says:  "He 
is  a  phonographic  record  waiting  for  his  parents  to 
put  on  the  needle." 

There  is  nothing  idle  in  all  of  nature's  realms. 
Why  then  should  we  force  our  children  in  infancy 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

to  be  idle  ?  When  the  baby  cries,  he  is  hungry,  un- 
comfortable, or  wants  to  be  amused.  It  is  all  non- 
sense about  helping  the  growth  of  his  lungs  through 
tears  and  screams.  He  can  get  better  growth  through 
laughter.  If  parents  smile  at  babies  and  show  them 
how  to  laugh  they  will  early  learn  this  joy-giving, 
health-bringing  art.  The  mother  should  give  her 
child  the  cheer-heritage  before  birth  and  despite 
fears  and  heartaches  she  should  continue  to  smile 
at  her  little  one  in  the  cradle.  She  should  begin 
early  to  give  him  visual  memory  and  to  train  all  his 
senses  which  nature  gave  to  protect  him.  She 
should  show  him  (through  example)  self-control 
and  joy  of  service  in  doing  something  for  others. 

But  when  parents  neglect  to  train  their  children's 
minds  and  spirits,  providing  only  for  the  physical 
demands  of  these  children,  they  make  of  them  lop- 
sided beings  who  when  they  go  to  school  do  one  of 
three  things — play  hookey,  get  nervous  prostration, 
or  give  it  to  the  teacher. 

Why  do  children  seek  for  information  long  be- 
fore the  prescribed  school  age  if  nature  intended 
that  their  bodies  should  attain  a  certain  growth 
while  their  minds  should  lie  dormant?  When  the 
child  is  from  two  and  a  half  to  three  years  old  the 
brain  doubles  itself,  and  at  this  time  the  little  one  is 
so  full  of  nervous  energy  that  he  is  considered  un 
enfant  terrible — unless  he  has  something  to  do 
which  he  considers  worth  while.  And  yet  the  fam- 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION   15 

ily  physician  prescribes — No  books,  no  administra- 
tion of  useful  knowledge,  but  rather  plenty  of  der- 
mal stimuli  a  la  Solomon.  I  agree  with  the  little 
boy  who  said  that  no  wonder  Solomon  believed  in 
whipping  children,  because  with  his  seven  hundred 
scolding  wives  and  three  hundred  fierce  porcupines 
his  life  was  such  misery  that  he  had  to  pick  on  some 
one.  Surely  in  this  enlightened  age  we  can  banish 
the  rod  as  a  relic  of  barbarism  and  introduce  the 
fairies,  Love  and  Interest,  as  the  disciplinarians  of 
our  homes. 

Naughtiness  Misdirected  Energy. — Naughti- 
ness is  but  misdirected  energy.  There  is  an  old 
saying  that  bad  boys  make  good  sailors.  In  other 
words,  boys  full  of  life  succeed  when  their  energies 
are  properly  directed  into  channels  where  construc- 
tion can  be  wrought  instead  of  destruction. 

This  leads  to  another  object  of  natural  education 
— that  of  teaching  construction  instead  of  destruc- 
tion in  the  nursery. 

Mothers  Cause  of  War. — At  present  we  moth- 
ers stand  in  horror  of  battles  and  blame  men  for  be- 
ing bloodthirsty  when  we  are  to  blame  for  having 
made  them  lovers  of  war  instead  of  peace.  We  give 
our  babies  toy  swords  and  pistols  when  they  are 
mere  toddlers.  We  show  them  monuments  erected 
to  the  soldier — taker  of  life — rather  than  to  the  con- 
structive genius — giver  of  life.  We  send  our  little 
ones  to  school  where  they  learn  history  from  books 


s 


16   MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

filled  with  descriptions  of  battles  and  where  they 
read  from  books  full  of  poetry  and  prose  describing 
scenes  of  carnage. 

Monument  for  Constructive  Genius. — We 
work  and  struggle  to  raise  money  for  useless  monu- 
ments to  past  warriors  and  do  nothing  for  the  con- 
structive geniuses  of  to-day  in  their  struggle  to 
help  humanity.  We  give  crowns  of  glory  to  the 
taker  of  a  thousand  lives  and  present  a  pewter  but- 
ton to  a  great  genius  who  saves  the  lives  of  hun- 
dreds and  thousands.  How,  then,  can  we  expect 
our  sons  to  hate  war  ? 

It  is  my  prayer  that  natural  educational  parents 
will  help  me  raise  a  useful  fountain  or  other  help- 
ful monument  to  Thomas  A.  Edison,  who  has  done 
so  much  for  humanity,  and  thus  give  to  our  children 
an  example  of  honor  to  construction  instead  of  de- 
struction. 

Over-development  of  Mind. — Returning  to 
our  subject  of  the  child's  trinity — there  are  some 
parents  so  ambitious  to  see  their  children  in  the  so- 
called  "bright  and  cute  class"  that  they  work  over- 
time to  develop  the  mind  and  pay  little  attention  to 
physical  development.  A  child  so  trained  is  likely 
to  become  a  replica  of  the  old-time  literary  genius 
with  round  shoulders,  begoggled  eyes,  hollow 
cheeks,  pale  bloodless  face— A  REAL  BOOK- 
WORM who  lives  on  books,  devours  others'  learn- 
ing but  produces  nothing  for  his  fellow  men.  It  is 
ridiculous  to  believe  that  a  great  man  must  look 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION   17 

sickly.  Good  blood  makes  healthy  gray  matter,  as 
was  shown  in  the  lives  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  Daniel 
Webster,  Julia  Ward  Howe  and  many  other  great 
producers  who  have  enriched  our  world. 

Effects  of  the  Rod  and  Constant  Preaching. — 
Again,  those  parents  who  strive  above  everything 
to  make  angels  of  their  children  by  means  of  the 
barbarous  rod  and  constant  preaching  of  so-called 
religious  teachings  very  often  succeed  in  sending 
the  poor  kiddies  to  Heaven,  or  they  drive  them 
away  from  home  and  sometimes  send  them  to  the 
very  place  from  which  they  are  striving  to  keep 
them.  Sometimes  children  of  over-religious  par- 
ents or  fanatics  end  their  days  in  insane  asylums. 
In  fact  a  large  per  cent,  of  the  present  inmates  of 
these  "hell-on-earth-institutions"  are  religious  fa- 
natics. Nature  intended  MODERATION  IN  ALL 
THINGS. 

Well-balanced  parents  realize  that  every  part  of 
the  child's  trinity  must  be  developed  so  that  he  may 
become  a  useful,  happy  being  who  will  outradium 
radium  in  his  electronic  radiations  of  happiness 
through  life. 

Normal  Children  Blessed  with  Talent—In 
addition  to  being  born  a  trinity,  I  believe  that  every 
normal  child  is  blessed  with  some  talent  and  it  de- 
pends upon  the  parents  to  discover  this  talent  before 
the  child  reaches  his  sixth  year.  Often  when  I 
make  the  statement  that  children  are  born  with 
talents,  people  ask:  "If  so  many  people  are  born 


18   MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 


with  talents  why  then  do  we  not  have  more  talented 
men  and  women?"  Simply  because  these  talents 
are  not  developed  in  babyhood  days  and  they  are 
choked  by  weeds  of  neglect.  Sometimes  the  talent 
is  so  powerful  that  it  refuses  to  be  choked  and 
grows  into  a  joy-giving  blossom,  but  if  the  parents 
discover  the  beautiful  talent-bud  and  nurture  it  until 
it  has  strength  to  put  forth  its  own  shoots,  it  will 
grow  into  one  of  the  marvel-plants  of  the  world. 

Great  Men  Showed  Tendencies  in  Youth. — In 
my  book,  Natural  Education,  I  cite  many  examples 
of  great  men  who  have  shown  their  tendencies  to 
greatness  in  early  youth.  Some  people  are  always 
quoting  exceptions.  They  argue  that  Goldsmith 
was  a  very  stupid  boy  and  had  to  be  fed  on  ginger 
cakes  in  order  to  persuade  him  to  do  his  sums.  A 


RECTANGLE 


A  rhombus  !s  a  quadrilateral   which  has  no   right  angles 
A  rectangle  is  a  parallelogram  which  has  four  right  angles 


A  pentagon  is  a  five-sided  figure 


A  hexagon  is  a  six-sided  figure 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION   19 


An  octagon  is  an  eight-sided  figure 


A  decagon  is  a  ten-aided  figure 


A  trapezoid  is  a  quadrilateral  with  two  sides  parallel. 

A  circle  is  a  plane  figure  whose  perimeter  is  a  curved  line,  every 
point  of  which  is  equally  distant  from  a  point  within  called  the  center. 
The  diameter  is  a  straight  line  passing  through  the  center  and  having 
both  ends  in  the  circumference. 

very  clever  book  on  this  subject  has  been  written 
recently  showing  the  so-called  "shorts"  or  those  men 
who  have  become  great  but  who  did  not  care  for 
certain  studies  in  their  youth.  If  Goldsmith  had 
liked  his  teacher  and  had  been  asked  to  write  a  story 
instead  of  doing  a  sum,  I  am  sure  he  would  have 
outshone  his  fellow  students,  even  without  the  gin- 
ger cake  reward. 

Some  children  have  been  called  stupid  in  school 
because  they  did  not  keep  up  with  their  classmates 
in  arithmetic.  In  my  humble  opinion,  we  are  wast- 


20   MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

ing  many  precious  hours  working  over  sums  which 
can  be  done  by  machinery,  when  the  little  ones 
should  be  in  the  open,  learning  about  live  things  of 
nature.  In  truth  I  do  not  blame  clever  children  for 
detesting  sums  as  taught  in  the  ordinary,  uninter- 
esting way  of  imparting  instruction  concerning  the 
science  of  quantity. 

No  Mind  Injured  if  Child  Be  Interested. — One 
of  the  drawbacks  to  early  training  of  children  has 
been  the  constant  fear  of  parents  that  the  child's 
mind  was  being  overtaxed  and  he  would  find  an 
early  grave.  No  mind  was  ever  injured  when  the 
child  was  interested.  It  is  only  when  we  force  a 
child  to  study  that  he  is  injured,  but  it  is  true  that 
many  precocious  children  have  died  in  childhood. 
Why?  Because  their  special  talent  was  developed 
to  the  nth  power  and  their  bodies  were  neglected. 
Most  of  these  children  have  been  of  the  tempera- 
mental, not  intellectual,  variety  of  genius.  As  mu- 
sicians or  artists  they  have  been  dragged  around 
the  country  and  made  to  submit  to  irregularities 
enough  to  kill  grown  people,  let  alone  children. 

Must  a  Genius  Be  Queer? — It  is  unfortunate 
also  that  many  great  people  have  been  over-  and 
under-developed  and  this  has  led  to  the  belief  that 
there  is  a  narrow  line  between  the  genius  and  the 
fool.  A  writer  in  a  recent  New  York  medical  jour- 
nal says  that  nowadays  no  one  dares  aspire  to  lit- 
erary distinction  without  incurring  the  likelihood  of 
psychological  dissection  by  alienists. 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION   21 

To  believe  that  the  real  genius  must  have 
"wheels"  is  ridiculous,  but  there  is  truth  in  what 
psychologists  say  concerning  the  development  of 
any  one  talent  to  its  highest  power,  thus  causing  the 
owner  to  suffer  more  pain  than  joy  from  said  talent, 
which  makes  him  a  dweller  upon  the  housetop  as  an 
authority  on  one  subject  while  he  is  in  the  dark  on 
others.  A  human  being  can  best  be  compared  to  a 
tree.  When  all  of  the  branches  are  evenly  developed 
it  is  a  thing  of  beauty,  but  if  one  branch  be  de- 
veloped into  a  huge  limb  and  the  others  remain 
dwarfed  twigs  the  tree  is  but  a  deformity. 

Jacks  of  All  Trades — Master  of  One. — I  beg 
of  you  good  parents,  teach  your  children  to  be  jacks 
of  all  trades  and  masters  of  one.  I  am  striving  to 
develop  not  so-called  geniuses  but  a  healthy,  happy, 
well-rounded  group  of  boys  and  girls  who  will  be- 
come glorious  specimens  of  manhood  and  woman- 
hood and  who  will  be  well  equipped  to  give  joy  of 
service  from  more  angles  than  one. 

As  a  born  fighter  ( for  all  people  of  real  spirit  are 
fighters)  I  am  not  fighting  my  fellow  men,  but  I  am 
fighting  evil,  filth,  unhappiness,  hurry,  worry  and 
fear. 

Fear  Cause  of  Half  Earth's  Woes.— Fear  is 
the  cause  of  half  our  complaints.  Fear  before  the 
birth  of  a  child  injures  the  mother's  health  and  also 
the  child.  Fear  in  school  drives  happiness  from 
what  should  be  a  most  interesting  path  to  knowl- 
edge realms.  And  one  reason  for  fear  is  that 


12      MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATIO] 

inquisitional  torture  which  is  called  "EXAMINA- 
TION." Every  year  children  commit  suicide  be- 
cause of  fear  owing  to  approaching  examinations. 
In  Germany,  where  examinations  are  very  strict, 
the  number  of  suicides  is  appalling.  Recently,  in 
speaking  before  a  large  convention  of  woman's 
clubs  in  Chicago,  Doctor  Sadler  endorsed  the  belief 
which  I  have  advanced  for  years,  that  half  of  chil- 
dren's nervous  troubles  are  caused  by  fear  of  these 
so-called  tests,  and  he  declared  that  many  college 
girls  were  nervous  wrecks  after  the  midwinter 
"exams." 

Doing  Away  with  Examinations. — Ben  Frank- 
lin wisely  said  that  we  are  all  bound  by  chains 
of  custom.  Because  our  ancestors  had  examina- 
tions we  must  continue  to  have  them  although 
wre  know  that  they  are  no  test  of  what  any  child 
knows.  "But,"  you  say,  "please  do  not  take  away 
our  old-time  institutions  and  give  us  nothing  in 
their  place."  As  substitutes  for  examinations  I  am 
using  three  good  tools — a  typewriter,  a  dictionary 
and  a  children's  encyclopedia,  The  Book  of  Knowl- 
edge. 

Children  are  taught  to  seek  for  information  in 
the  dictionary  and  the  young  people's  encyclopedia 
and  to  write  the  information  gained  on'  the  type- 
writer and  put  it  in  their  General  Information 
Books.  Seeking  for  information  and  using  the 
typewriter  to  impress  these  facts  upon  the  child's 
mind  makes  such  an  impression  that  it  is  not 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION   23 

necessary  to  give  weekly  examinations  to  see  how 
much  knowledge  has  lodged  in  the  gray  cells  and 
how  much  has  evaporated. 

Opposed  to  Diagraming. — I  am  opposed  also 
to  the  usual  method  of  teaching  children  grammar. 
No  child  learns  to  speak  good  English  through  dia- 
graming. We  must  have  schools  for  parents  and 
teach  fathers  and  mothers  to  speak  English  if  we 
hope  .to  have  children  become  good  grammarians. 

There  are  one  hundred  and  sixty-eight  hours  in 
the  week  and  the  teachers  have  the  children  not  over 
twenty-five  hours.  The  mother  and  the  streets  have 
them  the  rest  of  the  time.  If  teachers  tell  Johnnie 
to  say  "I  saw  a  cat"  and  his  parents  say  "I  seen  a 
cat,"  naturally  Johnnie  (despite  the  singing  of  many 
rules  and  the  ability  to  diagram)  will  continue  say- 
ing "I  seen  a  cat." 

Schools  for  Parents. — We  must  have  schools 
to  help  teach  the  parents,  and  the  easiest  way  to 
impress  certain  rules  upon  any  one's  mind  is  through 
writing  upon  a  typewriter.  If  mother  writes  slowly 
on  a  typewriter,  "I  saw  a  cat,"  let  us  say  ten  times, 
she  will  not  be  liable  to  make  the  mistake  again,  and 
she  will  help  Johnnie  to  keep  from  making  it.  But 
if  she  learns  to  memorize  a  number  of  rules  and 
tries  to  diagram  she  will  still  continue  to  use  her 
habit-bound  "I  seen." 

The  same  fairy  typewriter  is  undoubtedly  the 
easiest  and  most  interesting  helper  in  teaching  read- 
ing, spelling,  punctuation  and  memorizing. 


24   MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

Seme  people  have  accused  me  of  wanting  to  stuff 
children  in  their  babyhood  days.  I  am  not  a  be- 
liever in  any  stuffing  process,  but  I  am  convinced 
that  Professor  James  was  correct  in  believing  that 
the  best  time  in  life  to  memorize  is  before  the 
twelfth  year,  when  the  so-called  reasoning  period 
begins.  Before  this  period  it  is  very  easy  for  chil- 
dren to  memorize.  Why  not  fill  their  minds  with 
beautiful  thoughts  at  a  time  when  they  make  these 
thoughts  their  own  with  no  great  effort?  Then 
when  they  come  to  the  evening  of  life  they  will 
remember  the  beautiful  thoughts  learned  in  early 
childhood  and  will  bless  their  instructors  for  hav- 
ing given  them  these  thoughts. 

Children  Should  Rest  in  Adolescent  Period. — 
I  am  opposed  to  children  working  in  the  adolescent 
period.  At  that  time  of  life  children  are  naturally 
sluggish  and  dreamy.  They  are  in  the  chrysalis 
period  when  they  are  neither  worms  nor  butter- 
flies, and  naturally  they  prefer  to  dream  rather  than 
to  act. 

If  we  have  filled  their  minds  with  beautiful 
thoughts  before  this  period  and  have  given  them  a 
taste  for  good  books  they  will  not  neglect  to  con- 
tinue their  search  for  knowledge,  but  they  should 
not  have  any  set  tasks.  I  am  convinced  that  the 
reason  we  have  so  many  neurotic  men  and  women 
to-day  is  because  of  overwork  in  the  adolescent  pe- 
riod when  NATURE  intended  that  her  children 
should  rest. 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION   25 

Winifred  Now  in  Chrysalis  Time  of  Life. — 
Almost  every  day  I  receive  letters  from  mothers 
asking  me  how  my  daughter,  now  in  the  adolescent 
period,  is  spending  her  time.  Having  started  her 
on  a  royal  road  to  learning,  I  know  that  she  will  not 
turn  back  into  the  darkness  of  ignorance.  She  loves 
good  books  as  her  dear  friends.  She  loves  music, 
art  and  nature.  Having  taken  Herbert  Spencer's 
advice  to  lead  her  gently  to  the  fountain  of  knowl- 
edge and  coax,  not  force,  her  to  drink,  she  will 
always  go  to  this  fount  as  long  as  she  has  life. 

At  the  present  time  Winifred  has  no  set  tasks. 
She  plays  with  her  pets  and  reads  along  certain  lines 
which  I  have  suggested  (reading  without  a  purpose 
I  believe  to  be  the  idlest  of  amusements)  ;  she  writes 
stories  if  she  feels  inspired,  takes  long  walks,  finds 
delight  in  playing  on  the  piano  and  violin  and  in 
sketching  scenes  from  nature.  She  is  never  idle, 
but  she  has  nothing  to  upset  her  nerves  as  there  are 
no  tasks  which  she  must  accomplish  at  a  certain 
time. 

Long  Vacations. — The  adolescent  period  is 
the  only  time  for  long  vacations.  Ordinarily  I  do 
not  believe  in  children  having  lengthy  vacations,  as 
teachers  tell  me  that  the  little  ones  forget  all  they 
have  learned  during  said  vacations  and  it  takes  sev- 
eral months  to  reteach  the  same  facts  learned  in  a 
previous  term.  I  believe  in  having  many  holidays, 
but  I  do  not  believe  in  cessation  of  all  study  for 
months  at  a  time. 


26   MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

There  are  many  parents  (sad  to  tell)  who  like  to 
see  their  children  in  school  just  to  get  them  out  of 
the  way.  When  school  closes  they  send  them  into 
the  streets  to  play — anywhere  to  get  them  out  of  the 
home,  where  "they  make  dirt  and  a  noise." 

Parents  who  are  willing  to  sacrifice  their  lives 
for  their  children  and  their  own  pleasures  in  order 
to  teach  their  little  ones  how  to  play  for  a  purpose 
seem  to  be  rather  rare. 

Plants  are  not  given  attention  for  a  certain  length 
of  time  and  then  left  without  water  to  nourish  them. 
Education  is  the  nourishing  fluid  of  our  existence — 
that  which  gives  us  growth;  for  without  it  we  can 
make  no  progress.  It  should  never  be  cut  off  from 
our  daily  diet.  To  be  efficient  we  can  not  study  for 
nine  months  in  the  year  and  then  neglect  to  use  our 
minds  for  three  months.  Satan  will  surely  find 
some  mischief  for  our  idle  hands  and  minds  to  do. 
If  we  grown-up  people  gave  up  all  study,  as  the 
average  child  does  for  three  months,  wre  should  be 
anything  but  efficient  men  and  women.  How  then 
can  we  expect  children  to  remember  what  they 
learned  in  school  during  one  term  after  having  had 
a  long  no-thought  vacation?  It  is  no  wonder  that 
teachers  have  cause  to  complain  that  when  school 
opens  they  must  spend  at  least  two  months  drilling 
the  children  on  facts  that  they  wyere  supposed  to 
have  learned  in  a  lower  grade. 

Natural  educationalists  believe  in  school  in  the 
home  or  in  the  open  during  the  whole  year.  Not 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION   27, 

that  teachers  should  not  have  long  vacations.  They 
need  the  rest,  and  vacations  should  be  theirs  at  fre- 
quent intervals.  Even  long  vacations  from  school 
work  is  good  for  them,  as  they  can  be  gaining 
strength  and  new  ideas  for  teaching.  But  children 
should  have  small  doses  of  knowledge  each  day 
through  games  to  a  purpose,  walks  in  the  woods, 
visits  to  zoos,  studying  the  sky  and  seeking  informa- 
tion in  the  dictionary,  The  Book  of  Knowledge 
or  other  useful  books  of  information. 

Children  Take  Pleasure  in  Accomplishment. — 
Doctor  Philander  Claxton  says  that  it  is  a  mistake 
to  suppose  that  children  enjoy  having  nothing  to 
do.  They  take  pleasure  in  accomplishment.  The 
satisfaction  of  having  something  worth  while  is  as 
keen  for  them  as  it  is  for  their  parents.  They  pre- 
fer to  have  a  definite  task  to  perform  and  that  is 
why  they  enjoy  play  to  a  purpose  rather  than  aim- 
less games.  When  a  child  asks  the  oft-repeated 
question,  "What  shall  I  play  now,  mother?"  he  is 
not  begging  for  amusement  alone.  Play  is  the 
medium  through  which  he  develops  his  mind  as  well 
as  his  body  and  spirit,  and  his  request  for  sugges- 
tions from  elders  shows  that  he  is  striving  to  de- 
velop himself. 

Games  to  Educate.— It  is  my  ambition  to  in- 
troduce into  the  schools,  games  which  I  have  already 
introduced  into  many  homes.  These  games  are  gen- 
erally so  interesting  to  children  that  I  hope  to  see 
them  played  in  every  schoolroom  and  the  interest  so 


28   MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

aroused  that  children  will  continue  to  play  them 
after  school  hours  and  in  vacations.  Into  these 
games  I  have  attempted  to  put  as  many  important 
facts  as  possible  and  Winifred  has  put  them  in 
jingle  form,  knowing  that  a  jingle  will  "stick"  when 
prose  is  forgotten. 

Music  Is  Moral  Law. — "Music,"  as  Plato  said, 
"is  moral  law  leading  to  all  that  is  good,  wise  and 
beautiful."  Ergo  I  am  striving  to  put  as  much 
rhythm  as  possible  into  these  games,  while  I  am 
working  for  the  five  objective  points  of  education 
• — observation,  intense  interest,  concentration,  imi- 
tation, exploration. 

Expression  Instead  of  Repression. — I  am 
struggling  to  have  expression  in  the  schools  and 
homes  rather  than  repression,  and  I  believe  with 
Edwin  Markham  that  if  we  are  to  have  an  efficient 
race  of  men  and  women  we  must  educate  the  indi- 
vidual, not  the  masses,  and  we  must  educate  by 
sympathy  and  intense  interest.  The  key  to  the  un- 
locking of  a  child's  mind  is  interest,  not  compulsion. 
We  must  enlist  the  help  of  social  forces  that  are 
molding  the  child's  life.  We  must  strive  for  har- 
monious development  of  body-mind-soul.  We  do 
not  need  lessons  in  pedagogical-anthropology,  but 
rather  in  efficiency.  We  can  not  expect  to  make  our 
children  efficient  by  merely  cramming  their  minds 
with  facts,  but  they  must  know  how  to  use  informa- 
tion for  good  purposes.  We  must  teach  parents 
that  quality  is  better  than  quantity  and  that  a  large 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION   29 

number  of  children  underfed  and  of  mental  and 
physical  inferiority  means  RACE  SUICIDE,  while 
a  few  children  trained  to  efficiency  means  the  pres- 
ervation of  our  race  in  a  nobler  form  of  men  and 
women. 

The  Child's  Age. — We  have  had  a  man  age 
and  a  woman  age  and  now,  as  Doctor  O'Shea  says, 
we  have  the  children  era,  when  people  are  awaken- 
ing to  the  fact  that  our  children  are  the  world's 
most  valuable  assets.  As  the  child  has  the  right  to 
be  well  born  so  he  has  the  right  to  be  well  reared; 
the  right  to  be  happy  and  to  have  a  chance  of  ex- 
pressing spontaneously  the  joyousness  of  childhood 
and  curiosity  concerning  the  great  works  of  nature. 

Philips  Brooks  said :  "He  who  helps  a  child  helps 
humanity."  This  truth  must  be  brought  home  to 
Uncle  Sam.  It  has  been  justly  said  that  the  United 
States  government  has  spent  many  thousands  of 
dollars  telling  farmers  how  to  raise  hogs  and  it  is 
just  beginning  to  take  thought  of  the  fiber  of  its 
future  citizens. 

Millionaires  who  formerly  built  monuments  to 
themselves  are  now  donating  money  to  the  cause  of 
real  education,  the  leading  out  and  drawing  forth  of 
latent  powers  within  the  child. 

We  are  all  awakening  to  the  truth  fold  by  Daniel 
Webster  that,  "If  we  work  upon  marble,  it  will  per- 
ish; if  we  work  upon  brass,  time  will  efface  it;  if 
we  rear  temples,  they  will  crumble  into  dust;  but  if 
we  work  upon  immortal  souls  .  .  .  we  engrave 


30   MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

on  those  tablets  something  which  will  brighten  all 
eternity." 

Mothers,  fathers,  politicians,  teachers  and  preach- 
ers begin  to  see  with  David  Starr  Jordan  that  there 
is  nothing  in  all  the  world  so  important  as  children, 
nothing  so  interesting ;  and  that  any  one  who  wishes 
to  go  in  for  philanthropy  or  strives  to  be  of  use  in 
the  world  should  do  something  for  children. 

Those  who  spend  their  lives  studying  children 
agree  with  this  educator  that  if  people  yearn  to  be 
wise  they  should  study  children.  If  people  wish  to 
remain  young  and  be  happy  they  must  play  with 
young  happy  people. 

Fairy  Interest  in  Schoolroom. — These  stu- 
dents of  childhood  know  that  the  fairy  interest  must 
be  kept  in  the  home  and  school,  while  the  demons, 
Hurry,  Worry  and  Fear  must  be  banished.  They 
realize  with  Shakespeare  that  "No  profit  grows 
where  is  no  pleasure  taken,"  so  they  understand 
Herbert  Spencer,  who  long  ago  plead  for  play  to 
a  purpose  in  teaching  the  young.  For,  as  he  said, 
"The  man  to  whom  in  boyhood  information  comes 
in  dreary  tasks,  along  with  threats  of  punishment, 
is  unlikely  to  be  a  student  in  after  years." 

Follow  Ruskin's  Advice. — We  parents  should 
follow  Ruskin's  advice  and  strive  to  make  nests  of 
pleasant  thoughts  for  our  children  by  giving  them 
these  thoughts  in  the  babyhood  days,  when  impres- 
sions are  lasting.  "None  of  us  yet  knows,  for  none 
of  us  has  been  taught  in  early  youth  what  fairy 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION   31 

palaces  we  may  build  of  beautiful  thoughts — proof 
against  adversity.  Bright  fancies,  satisfied  memo- 
ries, noble  histories,  faithful  sayings,  treasure 
houses  of  precious  and  restful  thoughts  which  can 
not  disturb  nor  pain  make  gloomy  nor  poverty  take 
away  from  us — homes  built  without  hands  for  our 
souls  to  live  in." 

To  build  these  happy  palaces  and  thus  produce 
efficient  citizens  for  the  coming  generation  is  the 
object  of 

NATURAL  EDUCATION. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE   NATURAL  EDUCATION   BOOK  SHELF 

The  Book  of  Knowledge  is  an  encyclopedia  for 
children  in  twenty  volumes.  It  contains  informa- 
tion upon  many  different  subjects,  and  any  one  who 
knows  what  is  contained  in  these  books  is  a  well- 
informed  person. 

Natural  Education  and  other  books  of  The  Child- 
hood and  Youth  Series.  These  books,  under  the 
general  editorship  of  Doctor  M.  V.  O'Shea,  have 
been  written  to  help  mothers  with  children  of  all 
ages  and  under  all  circumstances  in  training  of 
mind-body-spirit. 

'The  New  Standard  Dictionary,  being  in  one  vol- 
ume, is  easy  for  children  to  study,  if  placed  in  a 
window  seat.  No  home  is  complete  without  a  dic- 
tionary, and  this  work  seems  to  be  the  most  complete 
and  yet  simple  lexicon  on  the  market.  Train  the  chil- 
dren to  get  the  dictionary  habit  and  to  go  to  its 
pages  for  information  when  they  are  in  doubt  con- 
cerning the  meaning  of  any  word. 

Peter  Rabbit  is  a  classic  for  children  which  should 
be  placed  in  every  nursery.  Its  illustrations  amuse 
the  child  and  cultivate  the  sense  of  humor.  Its  text 

32 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION   33 

is  interesting  and  serves  the  excellent  purpose  of 
teaching  children  to  read  by  allowing  them  to  copy 
the  text  on  the  typewriter. 

O'Shea,  Old  World  Wonders  and  Nursery  Class- 
ics, may  be  used  in  the  same  way  as  Peter  Rabbit. 

The  Jatakas  Tales  of  India  are  excellent  to  teach 
children  morals  without  letting  the  little  ones  know 
that  they  are  being  "preached  at."  Many  such 
stories  used  to  express  morals  can  not  be  told  to 
children  of  mixed  blood  or  of  various  countries, 
since  religious  and  political  differences  cause  the 
children  to  get  different  ideas  of  the  stories  being 
used  to  teach  morality,  but  these  Indian  tales  seem 
adapted  to  people  of  all  nations  and  all  beliefs. 

O'Shea-Kellogg  Health  Series  are,  in  my  opin- 
ion, the  best  health  talks  that  have  been  written  for 
children.  They  teach  physiology  and  hygiene  with- 
out letting  the  child  know  he  is  being  taught,  and  the 
text  is  so  interesting  that  I  have  known  children  to 
prefer  reading  in  these  books  and  looking  at  the 
objective  pictures  rather  than  reading  fairy  tales. 

Bulfinch's  Age  of  Fable  is  needed  on  every  moth- 
er's shelf  so  as  to  familiarize  her  with  ancient  Gre- 
cian and  Roman  myths  closely  connected  .with  art, 
history,  music,  literature,  astronomy,  etc. 

As  gar  d  Tales  tell  of  Scandinavian  myths. 

Patrino  'Anserino  or  Mother  Goose  in  Esperanto 
is  the  only  translation  that  has  been  made  of  nursery 
classics  into  the  international  medium  of  communi- 
cation. Winifred,  being  a  child  with  the  child  spirit 


34   MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

and  yet  having  the  knowledge  of  Esperanto,  was 
perhaps  able  to  make  a  better  translation  for  chil- 
dren than  any  grown  person  could  have  done. 

Historical  Mother  Goose  supplies  a  long-felt 
want  for  a  jingle  book  of  historical  facts.  In  this 
book,  as  its  author — Ella  Wheeler  Wilcox — says, 
"There  is  a  wedding  of  Father  History  with  Mother 
Goose  and  of  course  Music  is  invited  to  the  wed- 
ding." 

Hornbrook's  Books  on  Mathematics  give  mothers 
and  children  ideas  of  the  relations  of  numbers  to 
one  another  and  show  how  arithmetic,  algebra  and 
concrete  geometry  may  be  learned  through  games 
which  develop  powers  of  observation  and  concen- 
tration. 

Facts  in  Jingles  is  Winifred's  book  in  which  she 
has  attempted  to  help  other  children  place  facts  in 
their  minds  through  jingles,  even  as  she  has  stowed 
away  facts  worth  remembering. 

Play  Songs,  by  A.  E.  Bentley,  helps  children  to 
learn  eurhythmies,  to  imitate  and  to  become  grace- 
ful. 

Chansons'  Poesies  et  ]eux  is  a  book  used  by  all 
natural  education  teachers  to  teach  children  simple 
French  songs  while  giving  them  exercises  in  eu- 
rhythmies. 

Jason's  Quest,  by  Doctor  O.  S.  Lowell,  is  a  de- 
lightful opening  to  the  classics. 

Mabel  Powers  has  found  some  real  American 
fairies  for  American  children.  Her  Stories  the  Iro- 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION   35 

quois  Tell  Their  Children  not  only  delight  the  child 
mind  but  unconsciously  impress  upon  the  child  con- 
sciousness vital  ethical  truths.  The  so-termed  savage 
has  remembered  what  his  civilized  brother  has  for- 
gotten— to  provide  for  the  moral  training  of  the 
child  in  his  story  telling.  The  Iroquois  Indians 
never  punished  their  children.  They  told  them  a 
story  to  show  them  how  they  should  do. 

Questions  asked  by  children  which  are  answered 
in  some  of  the  books  listed : 

Why  is  the  sea  never  still  ? 

Where  does  the  wind  begin? 

What  makes  an  echo? 

Why  does  a  ball  bounce? 

Why  can't  we  see  in  the  dark  ? 

Why  are  tears  salt? 

Why  does  the  kettle  sing? 

What  makes  a  fog? 

Why  does  a  stick  float? 

Why  do  we  go  to  sleep  ? 

What  makes  a  bee  hum? 

Does  a  plant  eat? 

Is  a  stone  alive? 

What  makes  a  watch  go  ? 

Could  the  sky  fall  down  ? 

Why  can  not  animals  talk? 

What  makes  a  whirlpool  ? 

What  is  radium? 

Why  is  the  sky  blue  ? 

Why  do  stars  twinkle  ? 


36   MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

What  makes  water  boil  ? 

Why  is  snow  white  ? 

Why  is  sugar  sweet? 

What  makes  a  cat  purr  ? 

Why  has  water  no  taste  ? 

What  is  smoke  ? 

Why  is  yawning  catching? 

Why  does  salt  melt  snow? 

Of  what  is  air  made? 

Why  does  hair  turn  gray? 

What  keeps  the  stars  in  place  ? 

Why  is  foam  white  ? 

What  makes  us  sneeze? 

Have  fishes  any  feeling? 

Why  don't  we  fall  off  the  earth? 

How  do  flies  walk  on  the  ceiling? 

Why  does  milk  turn  sour? 

What  makes  us  hungry  ? 

Why  do  we  dream  ? 

What  is  the  only  liquid  metal? 

What  plant  catches  flies  to  eat? 

How  does  water  make  rocks  ? 

How  did  men  first  tell  time  ? 

Why  is  the  tiger  striped  ? 

Why  do  ants  keep  little  cows? 

Good  books  for  parents  to  read  so  as  to  give 
health  and  strength  to  their  children: 

The  Health  Series,  Kellogg  &  O'Shea  (Macmil- 
lan  Company). 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION   37 

Lessons  in  Physiology,  Hutchinson  (C.  E.  Merrill 
&  Company). 

Louise  Hogan's  Diet  for  Children  (Bobbs-Merrill 
Company,  Publishers). 

Articles  in  The  Child  Welfare  Magazine  and  The 
Mother's  Magazine. 

Public  Health  Reports,  issued  by  Surgeon-Gen- 
eral Rupert  Blue,  Washington,  D.  C. 

For  children  in  the  adolescent  period  there  is  no 
better  book  than  that  of  Doctor  Mary  G.  Hood, 
entitled,  For  Girls  and  the  Mothers  of  Girls  (Bobbs- 
Merrill  Company,  Indianapolis,  Indiana). 

Good  books  to  develop  the  imagination : 

Six  Nursery  Classics,  O'Shea. 

Old  World  Wonders,  O'Shea. 

Favorites  from  Fairyland,  Harris. 

Peter  Rabbit  and  other  books  of  the  Potter  Series. 

Asgard  Tales. 

Age  of  Mythology,  Bulfmch. 

The  Elm  Tree  Fairy  Book,  Johnson. 

The  Fir  Tree  Fairy  Book,  Johnson. 

The  Oak  Tree  Fairy  Book,  Johnson. 

The  Water  Babies,  Kingsley. 

The  Green  Fairy  Book,  Lang. 

The  Yellow  Fairy  Book,  Lang. 

The  Red  Fairy  Book,  Lang. 

Fairy  Mythology,  Keightley. 

Fairy  Tales,  Grimm. 

'Fairy  Tales,  Andersen. 


38   MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

Flower  Fables,  Alcott. 

Fairy  Tales  and  Their  Origin  and  Their  Mean- 
ing, Bunce. 

Slavonic  Fairy  Talcs,  Naake. 

The  Friendly  Stars,  Martin. 

Mother  Goose,  Fanny  Cory. 

Robinson  Crusoe,  Daniel  Defoe. 

Gulliver's  Travels f  Swift.  Edited  by  Clifton 
Johnson. 

Useful  Tools  in  Learning  Esperanto. — These 
may  be  obtained  from  the  American  Esperantist 
Company,  West  Newton,  Massachusetts. 

The  American  Esperanto  Book,  Baker. 

The  Esperanto  Grammar,  Kellerman-Reed. 

The  Esperanto  Teacher,  Fryer. 

Patrino  Anserino,  Stoner,  Jr. 

do,  Stoner. 

MUlidge-Esperanto-English. 

Rhodes  English-Esperanto. 

Himnaro,  Butler. 

Tutmonda  Anekotaro. 

Unua  Legolibro. 

Krestomatio,  Zamenhof. 

Universala  Vortaro. 

Esperanto  Key  in  Various  Languages. 

Frazlibro. 

Esperanto  Manuel. 

Julius  C&sar. 

Cindrulino. 

Amerika  Esperantist  o  (monthly  magazine)'. 


CHAPTER  III 

HOW  TO  USE  NATURAL  EDUCATIONAL  TOOLS 

Natural  Educational  Tools  for  the  Mothers'  Use 

FIRST  YEAR. — Balloon;  prism;  mirror;  sleigh 
bells;  bells  of  different  tones;  rattle  with  bells; 
silver  dollar;  bouncing  ball;  celluloid  doll;  sand- 
box; Victrola  or  Sonora;  Louise  Brigham's  toy 
furniture. 

SECOND  YEAR.' — Balls ;  dolls ;  alphabet  and  num- 
ber blocks;  large  red  letters,  numbers  and  musical 
notes;  Noah's  ark;  Bradley' s  villages;  small  birch- 
bark  boat ;  celluloid  dolls ;  building  blocks ;  top ;  bal- 
loon; prism;  bells;  colored  pictures;  plasticine; 
sand-box;  box  of  ivory  finish  and  sandpaper  figures ; 
color  test  yarns;  scissors;  shells;  aquarium;  Vic- 
trola or  Sonora;  a  tree;  gamut;  Candoit  toys; 
Louise  Brigham's  toy  furniture. 

THIRD  YEAR. — Balloon;  balls;  celluloid  dolls; 
alphabet  and  number  blocks;  anagrams;  large  red 
letters,  numbers  and  musical  notes;  Noah's  ark; 
Bradley's  villages;  small  birch-bark  canoe;  building 
blocks ;  mechano ;  colored  crayons ;  colored  pictures ; 
box  of  water  colors;  Chautauqua  Industrial  Art 
Desk;  sand-box;  box  of  articles  to  show  qualities  of 

39 


40   MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

roughness,  smoothness,  etc.;  plasticine;  color  test 
yarns;  scissors;  shells;  box  of  beans,  pebbles,  but- 
tons, etc. ;  aquarium ;  pet  dog ;  kittens ;  bird ;  Victrola 
or  Sonora;  typewriter;  tree;  gamut;  Louise  Brig- 
ham's  toy  furniture;  Candoit  toys. 

FOURTH  YEAR. — Balloon;  balls;  dolls;  alphabet 
and  number  blocks;  anagrams;  large  red  letters, 
numbers  and  musical  notes;  Noah's  ark;  cardboard 
birds  and  animals;  Bradley's  villages;  birch-bark 
canoes ;  mechano ;  colored  crayons ;  dice ;  parcheesi ; 
colored  pictures;  Chautauqua  Art  Desk;  sand-box; 
box  of  articles  to  show  qualities  of  roughness, 
smoothness,  etc.;  globe;  drum;  plasticine;  beads; 
color  test  yarns ;  scissors ;  shells ;  box  of  beans,  peb- 
bles, buttons,  etc.;  aquarium;  Victrola  or  Sonora; 
typewriter;  lotto;  dominoes;  dissected  maps;  large 
hanging  maps ;  top ;  marbles ;  game  of  jacks ;  Perry 
prints;  jackstraws;  magnet;  abacus;  pint,  quart, 
peck  and  bushel  measures;  tree;  gamut;  Candoit 
toys ;  Louise  Brigham's  toy  furniture. 

FIFTH  YEAR. — Balls ;  dolls ;  alphabet  and  number 
blocks;  anagrams;  large  red  letters,  numbers  and 
musical  notes;  Noah's  ark;  cardboard  birds  and 
animals;  Bradley's  villages;  birch-bark  canoes; 
mechano;  colored  crayons;  dice;  parcheesi;  colored 
pictures;  Chautauqua  Industrial  Art  Desk;  sand- 
box; clay  table;  bead  loom;  raffia  and  rattan  for 
weaving;  boxes  of  articles  to  show  qualities  of 
roughness,  smoothness,  etc.;  globe;  drum;  plasti- 
cine ;  color  test  yarns ;  scissors ;  shells ;  box  of  beans, 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION   41 

pebbles,  buttons,  etc. ;  aquarium ;  pets ;  Victrola  or 
Sonora;  typewriter;  lotto;  dominoes;  dissected 
maps;  large  hanging  maps;  top;  marbles;  game  of 
jacks;  jackstraws;  Perry  prints;  magnet;  magnify- 
ing-glass;  abacus;  pint,  quart,  gallon,  peck  and 
bushel  measures;  tape-line;  measuring  line;  ruler; 
gold  and  silver  stars;  scrap  books;  kodak;  tree; 
gamut;  Candoit  toys;  Louise  Brigham's  toy  furni- 
ture; language  phone  lessons;  natural  educational 
card  games. 

SIXTH  YEAR. — Balls;  dolls;  anagrams;  Noah's 
ark;  cardboard  animals  and  birds;  Bradley's  vil- 
lages ;  birch-bark  canoes ;  mechano ;  colored  crayons 
and  pencils ;  pen ;  dice ;  parcheesi ;  bagatelle ;  colored 
pictures;  Chautauqua  Industrial  Art  Desk;  sand- 
box; clay  table;  bead  loom;  sewing  outfit;  raffia  and 
rattan  for  weaving;  globe;  drum;  orchestra;  bells 
or  xylophone ;  plasticine ;  color  test  yarns ;  scissors ; 
shells;  box  of  small  articles;  aquarium;  pets;  Vic- 
trola or  Sonora;  typewriter;  lotto;  dominoes; 
dissected  maps ;  hanging  maps ;  top ;  marbles ;  game 
of  jacks;  jackstraws;  Perry  prints;  magnet;  magni- 
fying-glass;  abacus;  pint,  quart,  gallon,  peck  and 
bushel  measures;  tape  measure;  ruler;  gold  and 
silver  stars;  scrap  books;  kodak;  artificial  climbing 
tree ;  garden  tools ;  small  flags  of  all  nations ;  minia- 
ture household  toys;  see-saw  sliding  board;  Centa- 
phrase  French  and  Spanish  games;  educational 
card  games;  chess;  carpenter  outfit;  mirrorscope; 
rocking-horse;  stuffed  animals;  collections  of  post- 


42   MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

cards;  stereoscope;  toy  store;  scales;  Japanese 
building  puzzles;  miniature  house;  small  flags  of  all 
nations;  paper  dolls;  tea  set;  various  coins;  curios; 
strings  of  beads ;  electro  set  toys ;  tree ;  gamut ;  Can- 
doit  toys ;  Louise  Brigham's  toy  furniture ;  language 
phone  lessons. 

Some  mothers,  when  they  glance  at  my  long  list  of 
tools,  may  become  discouraged  and  think  that  their 
pocketbooks  are  not  fat  enough  to  buy  all  of  these 
toys.  If  they  examine  the  lists,  however,  they  will 
find  that  many  of  the  toys  used  in  the  first  and  sec- 
ond years  may  be  used  up  to  the  school  age  and  even 
after.  Besides,  it  is  not  necessary  to  buy  all  of  these 
tools.  I  have  given  a  full  list  of  my  helpers  in  mak- 
ing the  roadway  to  knowledge  one  of  pleasure;  but 
mothers  can  use  those  toys  which  give  their  children 
most  pleasure,  and  a  clever  mother  can  manufacture 
toys  which  will  be  as  helpful  as  any  that  are  sold 
in  toy  stores.  Home-made  toys  are  always  more 
interesting  to  children  than  mechanical  wonders, 
which  delight  for  a  few  moments  and  generally  get 
out  of  order,  if  not  broken,  so  that  they  cause  more 
irritation  to  children  than  joy.  Furthermore,  these 
mechanical  toys  kill  the  purpose  of  play  by  destroy- 
ing the  creative  spirit. 

Ball  the  Best  Toy.— If  I  could  have  but  one 
toy  for  my  baby  it  would  be  a  ball,  the  best  helper 
in  all  sorts  of  games  and  the  fairy  which  brings  good 
health  to  old  and  young.  This  toy  has  been  right- 
fully called  "the  medicine  ball." 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION   43 

Very  young  babies  like  to  see  a  ball  thrown  into 
the  air  and  caught.  They  love  to  watch  it  being 
bounced  and  they  show  their  tendencies  as  natural 
football  and  baseball  players  by  trying  to  catch 
it  when  thrown  and  by  kicking  at  it.  When  Wini- 
fred was  a  very  small  baby  she  found  great  delight 
in  playing  with  a  ball  which  I  attached  to  a  cord  tied 
to  two  chairs.  I  placed  the  baby  on  an  eiderdown 
quilt,  which  I  laid  between  the  two  chairs  from 
which  the  ball  was  suspended.  All  babies  are  nat- 
ural kickers  and  as  Winifred  began  to  kick  she  came 
in  contact  with  the  ball,  causing  it  to  swing  to  and 
fro.  This  amused  her  and  after  a  time  she  began  to 
aim  at  the  ball  as  well  as  to  indulge  in  simple  kick- 
ing movements.  This  exercise  helped  her  to  co- 
ordinate mind  and  muscle  and  developed  real  muscle 
while  keeping  her  amused.  So  great  was  her  delight 
in  this  exercise  that  I  have  known  her  to  perspire 
-from  her  exertions  and  to  scream  aloud  in  delight. 
I  did  not,  however,  allow  her  to  indulge  in  this  foot- 
ball game  for  more  than  ten  minutes  at  a  time,  as 
she  was  too  strenuous  in  her  movements. 

Learn  to  Scan  With  a  Ball.—- Through  use  of 
this  same  fairy  ball  I  taught  Winifred  to  count  and 
to  scan  from  Vergil.  Vergil  ball  is  a  game  which 
we  still  enjoy  playing  together. 

When  she  was  a  baby  I  seated  her  on  her  play  rug 
and  placed  cushions  around  her  so  that  if  she  lost 
her  balance  and  toppled  over  she  would  not  be  hurt. 
I  sat  in  front  of  her  and  spread  out  my  feet  in  a  very 


44   MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

undignified  manner  so  that  the  ball  would  roll  back 
to  me  instead  of  going  across  the  room.  I  spread 
out  the  baby's  legs  in  a  similar  fashion  and  rolled 
the  ball  gently  to  her.  At  first  she  could  not  catch 
it,  but  she  tried  to  hold  it  with  her  chubby  fists.  Day 
after  day  for  probably  a  week  I  kept  rolling  the  ball 
to  the  baby  and  telling  her  to  roll  it  back  to  me,  and 
after  a  week's  efforts  I  succeeded  in  training  her  to 
roll  the  ball  to  "mother."  After  a  few  weeks  of  roll- 
ing she  learned  to  toss  the  ball  in  my  direction, 
thus  training  the  muscles  of  her  eye  as  well  as  those 
of  her  hand.  When  she  became  more  expert  in  ball- 
tossing  so  that  she  did  not  have  to  exert  mental 
power  in  each  throw  we  began  to  learn  Vergil's 
JEneid.  She  was  already  familiar  with  the  first 
ten  lines,  which  her  nurse  and  I  had  scanned  to  her 
from  the  day  of  her  birth  and  when  I  began  to  scan 
(as  I  threw  the  ball  to  her),  saying  "Arma,"  she  re- 
plied with  "virumque,"  etc.  Then  I  taught  her 
new  lines  and  thus  in  the  first  five  years  of  our  play 
together  she  learned  to  scan  the  whole  of  the  first 
book  of  the  £Lneid. 

While  bouncing  the  ball,  I  would  count  first  to 
five,  then  to  ten,  etc.  Of  course  the  baby  did  not  at 
first  understand  what  I  meant  by  "one,  two,"  (the 
sound  I  made  when  I  bounced  the  ball),  but  as  she 
began  to  talk,  she  imitated  by  saying  "one,  two," 
while  she  played  "bounce  ball." 

Later  on  we  used  this  bounce  ball  game  in  helping 
us  to  add  numbers.  First  Winifred  would  bounce 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION   45 

the  ball,  seeing  how  many  times  she  could  strike 
it  without  missing,  and  singing  (as  she  bounced  the 
ball)  some  simple  jingle  which  she  and  I  invented. 
When  she  missed  I  would  have  a  chance,  and  Wini- 
fred put  on  her  score-card  the  number  reached  by 
her  before  she  had  a  "miss."  I  did  the  same  and 
after  a  certain  time  we  added  our  numbers  and 
found  who  made  the  higher  score. 

Bounce  ball  has  helped  us  also  in  learning  to  count 
in  different  languages  and  to  make  simple  jingles 
with  meter  appropriate  to  the  bouncing  accompani- 
ment. We  have  used  it  in  learning  alphabets  of 
various  tongues,  and  Winifred  uses  it  to  teach  young 
children  to  repeat  the  English  alphabet. 

The  Balloon. — I  have  given  much  space  to 
praise  of  the  sine-qua-non  toy  of  any  home,  but  the 
ball  was  not  Winifred's  first  toy.  Show  a  ball  to 
a  six-weeks-old  baby  and  he  will  pay  no  attention  to 
it.  But  tie  a  bright  red  balloon,  attached  to  a  string, 
to  baby's  wrist  and  he  will  follow  its  movements  (as 
he  waves  his  hand  to  and  fro)  and  find  pleasure  in  so 
doing.  If  the  mother  talks  to  her  baby  and  tells  him 
that  the  balloon  is  red,  round,  light,  that  it  goes  up 
and  comes  down,  all  unconsciously  he  learns  these 
characteristics  of  his  first  toy,  and  without  any  ex- 
ertion he  learns  how  to  direct  the  muscles  of  his 
hands  to  produce  certain  motions  with  this  toy.  Any 
baby  will  wave  his  hands  and  kick  his  feet,  striving, 
as  nature  intended,  to  exercise  his  muscles.  But  this 
is  a  sort  of  aimless  exercise  to  him,  of  which  he  soon 


46   MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

tires,  unless  he  has  some  object  in  view.  The  bal- 
loon acts  as  an  object.  It  is  baby's  first  dumb-bell. 

Give  Babies  Love  and  Amusement. — I  am  a 
firm  believer  in  amusing  children,  or  teaching  them 
to  amuse  themselves.  I  can  not  understand  how 
any  loving  mother  can  deny  her  child  the  love  and 
sympathy  he  needs  when  he  cries.  Even  the  animal 
mother  expresses  affection  and  cuddles  her  off- 
spring when  it  shows  signs  of  distress. 

Babies  are  so  weak,  so  helpless  and  so  lonely  in 
the  first  months  of  their  existence  on  terra  firma. 
They  want  to  feel  the  touch  of  a  loving  hand,  to 
see  smiling  faces  and  to  hear  sweet  sounds. 

If  we  treat  them  as  intelligent  beings  instead  of 
animated  dolls,  they  will  soon  show  through  actions 
how  they  appreciate  being  with  us  and  being  loved 
and  amused  as  well  as  clothed  and  fed. 

Amuse  with  Prism  or  Mirror. — One  of  the 
easiest  ways  to  amuse  a  young  baby  is  with  a  prism 
or  mirror.  Hold  it  in  the  sunlight  and  let  the  dan- 
cing "light  spirits"  fly  all  around  the  ceiling  above 
baby's  head  and  sometimes  on  his  counterpane.  You 
may  use  this  prism  a  number  of  times  without  his 
babyship  paying  any  attention  to  the  "light  spirits" ; 
but  if  you  persevere,  he  will  be  attracted  by  the  quick 
motion  and  bright  colors,  and  when  he  once  sees 
these  fairies,  he  will  take  great  delight  in  their  move- 
ments and  try  to  catch  them  with  his  hands. 

Later  on,  when  he  can  talk  and  walk,  a  moral  les- 
son may  be  taught  by  the  light  fairy.  Ask  baby  to 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION   47 

catch  it.  He  tries  and  fails.  Explain  to  him  that 
not  everything  in  life  is  tangible.  He  can  not  lay 
hold  of  everything  he  wishes. 

Bells  of  Different  Tones  and  Sleigh-Bells.— 
One  of  the  physicians  who  believes  in  absolute  quiet 
for  babies  experienced  a  great  shock  when  he  came 
to  see  Winifred,  aged  seven  weeks,  and  found  bells 
of  different  tones  tied  to  the  foot  of  her  crib. 
When  she  kicked,  these  bells  would  ring,  and  I  tried 
to  train  her  musical  sense  by  ringing  certain  tonecf. 
bells  so  as  to  play  simple  airs.  Each  bell  was  tied 
with  a  bright  ribbon  of  a  different  hue,  and  I  at- 
tempted to  train  her  color  sense  by  mentioning  the 
bell  by  the  color  of  its  ribbon.  When  I  would  ring 
the  bell  attached  to  a  red  ribbon,  I  would  say,  "Red 
bell,"  etc.  Through  these  colored  ribbons  Wini- 
fred learned  to  distinguish  colors  so  that  when  she 
was  six  months  old  she  could  ring  the  red,  blue, 
green,  etc.,  bells  at  my  request. 

A  set  of  sweet-toned  sleigh-bells,  fastened  to  the 
foot  of  the  bed  and  attached  by  ribbons  to  her 
feet,  were  of  great  amusement  to  my  baby.  Every 
time  she  kicked  her  feet  the  bells  made  sweet  tones, 
and  she  soon  learned  to  know  that  the  more  vigor- 
ously she  kicked,  the  louder  was  the  effect  produced. 
Being  fond  of  loud  and  inspiring  tones,  she  kicked 
in  such  a  vigorous  manner  that  I  could  not  allow  her 
to  play  this  game  for  more  than  a  few  minutes. 

Unfortunately,  good  mechanical  music  was  not 
easily  to  be  secured  when  Winifred  was  a  baby,  but 


48   MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

I  used  a  sweet  music  box  and  let  her  hear  the  piano 
and  other  instruments  in  her  waking  hours.  In 
these  days  almost  any  mother  possessing  average 
means  can  secure  a  Victrola  or  a  Sonora  and  thus 
train  her  child's  ear  to  appreciate  sweet  sounds, 
saving  him  perhaps  from  the  dreadful  affliction  of 
being  tone  deaf. 

No  Children  Naturally  Tone  Deaf.— A  dear 
friend  of  mine  who  can  not  distinguish  between  the 
airs  of  Yankee  Doodle  and  Nearer  My  God  to 
Thee  attributes  his  tone-deafness  to  not  having 
heard  any  music  until  he  was  six  years  of  age. 
Katharine  Tingley,  who  begins  musical  training  in 
infancy,  says  that  she  has  never  found  a  tone-deaf 
child. 

I  am  becoming  more  and  more  of  a  crank  about 
babies  hearing  music,  and  recently  in  helping  a  pros- 
pective mother  to  prepare  her  nursery,  I  arranged  a 
Grecian  air  harp  with  waxed  strings  above  one  win- 
dow, hung  Japanese  bells  in  different  parts  of  the 
room,  fastened  bells  of  different  tones  to  one  of  the 
doors  and  in  addition  to  the  bells  and  sleigh-bells  to 
hang  on  the  crib,  I  added  a  rattle  with  small  silver 
bells. 

The  baby  for  whom  this  nursery  was  prepared  is 
now  three  months  old.  Despite  predictions  from  a 
family  physician  that  the  "clanging  of  the  bells" 
would  give  him  "nervous  fits"  he  is  a  happy,  plump 
young  individual,  who  does  not  seem  to  know  that 
he  possesses  nerves.  When  the  wind  comes  through 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION   49 


VioOFA  SQUARE 


A  BRICK  IS 

A  RECTANGLE 

IN  SHAPE 


!7/,o 

JSQUARES 


'/.OF  A 

SQUARE 


I'/.SQUAJ 


*/o  OF  A  SQUARE 


ONE    SQUARE 


Made  by  Winifred  to  teach  her  pupils  geometrical  figures  and  fractions 

the  window  upon  which  the  waxed  strings  have  been 
arranged,  it  makes  a  sweet  sighing  sound  instead  of 
howling  notice  of  its  arrival.  When  the  door  opens 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

and  shuts,  music  accompanies  the  motion  and  the 
sound  pleases  our  youthful  knight.  Again,  when 
his  mother  amuses  him  by  using  his  rattle,  she  does 
not  shake  it  aimlessly  up  and  down,  but  beats  it  to 
three- four,  four- four,  etc.,  time,  and  makes  real 
jingling  music  for  her  cooing  audience.  She  is  try- 
ing the  same  experiments  with  this  little  lad  that  I 
tried  with  Winifred,  and  if  he  grows  up  with  no 
sense  of  tone  and  is  unable  to  pass  the  color-blind 
test  for  the  army  or  navy,  then  it  will  be  my  duty 
to  write  a  new  book  and  acknowledge  my  mistake 
to  the  world. 

Silver  Dollar. — The  silver  dollar  with  a  hole 
made  in  it  is  my  pet  instrument  to  help  the  baby  coax 
his  teeth  through  the  gums.  The  dollar  can  be 
boiled  and  kept  free  from  germs.  It  is  bright  and 
attractive  to  the  little  one  as  he  sees  it  dangling  from 
the  chain  and  he  can  massage  his  gums  at  a  great 
rate  when  he  puts  a  portion  of  said  dollar  into  his 
mouth.  Besides,  it  is  too  large  for  him  to  swallow, 
so  it  will  not  be  necessary  to  attach  the  toothing  in- 
strument to  a  cord  tied  to  the  child's  toe,  as  did  old 
Mammy  Chloe,  upon  the  premise  that  if  the  child 
swallowed  the  thimble  she  had  given  him  to  bite  then 
he  would  kick  and  pull  it  out  of  his  throat. 

Celluloid  Doll. — A  celluloid  doll  is  most  useful 
in  amusing  baby  in  his  crib  and  in  the  tub.  A 
child  who  hates  the  water  can  be  taught  to  like  it 
by  putting  a  doll  in  the  tub  when  he  is  to  have  his 
bath.  He  watches  the  doll  float  and  tries  to  catch  it, 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION   51 

being  so  interested  that  he  pays  no  attenion  to  the 
scrubbing  process  through  which  his  mother  puts 
him.  Winifred  was  always  happy  playing  with  a 
doll  and  a  tiny  birch-bark  canoe.  As  she  grew  older 
she  pretended  that  this  doll  was  Hiawatha  sailing  in 
his  canoe.  I  recited  Longfellow's  beautiful  poem 
to  her  until  she  knew  it  and  could  recite  it  herself. 
Acting  on  the  mother  duck  principle  that  ducklings 
should  be  led  to  the  pond  for  a  swim,  not  driven,  I 
have  tried  to  make  the  bath  one  of  play  and  amuse- 
ment so  that  no  tears  have  been  shed  when  bath  time 
arrived.  In  fact,  Winifred,  as  a  child,  was  so  fond 
of  her  baths  that  we  had  to  keep  the  bathroom  door 
locked  so  that  she  would  not  take  baths  unbeknown 
to  us. 

Sand-box. — A  sand-box  is  the  heritage  of 
every  child.  Most  mothers  are  afraid  to  let  very 
young  babies  play  in  the  sand  for  fear  they  will  make 
sand  cushions  of  themselves.  I  have  tried  the  experi- 
ment with  twenty  babies,  holding  their  hands  every 
time  they  tried  to  eat  sand  and  have  thus  trained 
the  little  ones  not  to  put  things  into  their  mouths. 
I  try  to  keep  little  ones  in  ignorance  of  their  mouths 
as  a  receptacle  even  for  food.  I  believe  if  we  feed 
babies  and  do  not  allow  them  to  feed  themselves 
until  they  are  old  enough  to  understand  what  can 
be  put  into  the  mouth  and  what  should  be  left  out 
we  shall  find  it  an  easy  task  to  keep  the  baby  from 
making  his  mouth  a  receptacle  for  everything  he 
finds. 


52   MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

The  sand-box  is  the  easiest  and  safest  way  of 
giving  this  training.  Put  the  baby  in  the  sand.  If 
he  makes  any  attempt  to  put  the  sand  into  his  mouth, 
hold  his  hands.  Every  time  he  makes  the  attempt, 
take  hold  of  his  hands  and  he  will  begin  to  see  that 
he  loses  his  freedom  when  his  hand  goes  in  the  direc- 
tion of  his  mouth.  Fearing  to  lose  his  freedom,  he 
will  from  that  time  on  refrain  from  putting  things 
into  his  mouth.  The  sand-box  may  also  be  used 
to  teach  geography,  etc. 

Alphabet  and  Number  Blocks. — Blocks  always 
delight  babies,  but  there  is  no  reason  why  a  mother 
should  not  make  these  blocks  a  means  of  teaching 
useful  information.  Buy  a  number  of  large  letters 
cut  out  of  glazed  paper  of  either  a  red  or  green 
shade.  Paste  these  letters  on  sheets  of  white  card- 
board and  fasten  them  as  a  border  around  the  nur- 
sery wall.  Use  red  numbers  and  musical  notes  in 
the  same  way.  These  letters  may  be  obtained  from 
stores  which  sell  kindergarten  supplies,  or  from 
the  Natural  Education  Company.  For  use  with 
them,  buy  blocks  marked  with  letters,  numbers 
and  notes.  Do  not  attempt  to  teach  baby  all  of  the 
letters  or  numbers  or  notes  at  one  time.  Begin  with 
the  letter  A.  Point  to  it  on  the  wall,  then  show  it  to 
the  child  on  his  block  A.  Let  him  become  perfectly 
familiar  with  A  before  learning  the  other  letters, 
although  the  mother  may  sing  over  the  names  of 
other  letters  to  the  air  of  Zu  Lauterbach. 

By  means  of  blocks  the  mother  may  give  a  child 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION   53 

its  first  impressions  of  the  science  of  quantity.  She 
can  count  out  a  certain  number  of  blocks  and  give 
them  to  him  to  build  a  house.  Then  she  can  ask 
him  for  a  certain  number  for  her  use.  Baby  feels 
very  proud  when  his  mother  asks,  "Please  give  me 
five  blocks,"  and  he  counts  out,  "One,  two,  three, 
four,  five  blocks  for  mother." 

Top. — Children  of  all  races  and  of  all  times 
have  enjoyed  a  toy  which  made  the  spinning 
motion.  Explorers  claim  to  have  discovered  a  top 
with  which  little  Moses  once  played,  and  children 
will  continue  to  play  with  tops  as  long  as  children 
exist. 

A  top  painted  with  rings  representing  all  of  the 
colors  of  the  rainbow  is  a  fine  toy  to  teach  color 
sense.  We  call  such  tops  vibgyors  because  they 
are  marked  with  rainbow  tints  of  violet,  indigo, 
blue,  green,  yellow,  orange  and  red.  When  these 
many-colored  tops  are  in  motion  they  look  pretty 
to  the  child  and  delight  his  fancy.  When  not  in  mo- 
tion they  may  be  used  to  develop  his  chromatic  sense. 
It  is  well  known  that  boys  are  often  lacking  in  this 
sense.  They  seem  to  be  born  with  a  keener  sense  of 
touch  than  their  sisters,  but  do  not  compare  with 
them  in  color  tests.  Many  men  lose  excellent  posi- 
tions by  not  being  able  to  pass  the  color-test  exam- 
inations. If  these  men  had  been  given  the  proper 
training  in  infancy  I  believe  that  their  chromatic 
sense  could  have  been  developed.  All  natural  edu- 
cational mothers  use  vibgyor  tops,  color-test  yarns, 


54   MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

colored  crayons  and  artists'  samples  (such  as  may  be 
secured  from  any  paint  firm)  in  their  nurseries. 

The  child  is  first  attracted  to  the  top  by  its  mo^ 
tion.  When  it  stops  spinning  the  mother  says, 
"Pretty  top!  See  this  lovely  red  color !'f  Babies 
who  have  been  trained  with  the  bells  hung  with  dif- 
ferent colored  ribbons  can  easily  find  the  red  rib- 
bon or  the  red  yarn  in  the  color-test  box,  which 
matches  with  color  on  top.  Babies  who  have  not 
been  so  trained  may  not  distinguish  the  colors  at 
once.  The  mother  should  always  begin  with  red 
after  pointing  out  red  on  the  top,  among  the  ribbons, 
color-test  yarns  and  in  objects  in  the  room.  She 
should  draw  a  red  mark  with  the  red  crayon  on 
white  paper  and  let  the  child  select  a  crayon  and 
make  the  same  color.  It  is  better  to  draw  a  red  house 
or  some  figure,  as  the  child  may  not  be  attracted  by 
an  ordinary  line.  Other  games  to  teach  children  the 
colors  are  described  in  my  book  on  Natural  Educa- 
tion and  The  Natural  Educational  Game  Book. 

Noah's  Ark. — A  Noah's  ark  has  helped  to 
make  many  good  citizens  for  many  countries.  Na- 
ture's children  love  animals,  or  even  poor  represen- 
tations in  wood  or  stone.  And,  oh,  what  a  joy  these 
wooden  animals  can  be  made  through  the  mother's 
proper  direction,  telling  children  truths  of  biology, 
relating  habits  of  the  various  animals,  playing  games 
of  pretend-to-be  lions,  tigers,  etc.,  and  thus  develop- 
ing the  child's  imagination  while  making  him  happy. 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION   55 

In  spelling  games,  these  animals  or  those  which 
may  be  bought  in  kindergarten  outfits  made  of 
cardboard,  are  most  useful  to  make  spelling  a  joy. 
When  the  child  spells  "c-a-t,  cat,"  he  can  illustrate 
his  spelling  with  her  catship.  Recently  I  have  found 
some  very  clever  representations  of  various  animals 
for  sale  in  the  ten-cent  stores  and  I  would  suggest 
to  mothers  that  they  buy  a  collection  to  use  for  stage 
scenery  in  their  intensive  play  games. 

Bradley 's  villages,  small  celluloid  dolls,  Teddy 
bears  are  all  useful  in  playing  games  and  in  enacting 
scenes  from  historic  stories  told  to  the  children.  Pro- 
fessor Raymond  Gros  of  the  School  of  Languages, 
Pittsburgh,  uses  the  Bradley  villages  in  teaching 
French  to  young  pupils.  He  sets  up  a  village  and 
then  talks  about  everything  in  French,  pointing  out 
the  different  objects  to  his  pupils.  I  have  often 
played  similar  games  with  children,  and  when  I 
could  not  buy  objects  to  illustrate  my  theme  I  cut 
them  out  of  paper. 

Paper  Toys. — All  mothers  should  learn  how  to 
cut  out  stiff  paper  chairs,  tables,  etc.  Children  de- 
light in  these  paper  toys,  and  through  imagination's 
help  they  sometimes  get  more  pleasure  from  such 
paper  toys  than  from  those  that  are  bought  in 
toy  shops. 

At  an  early  age,  give  the  child  a  pair  of  blunt  scis- 
sors and  show  him  how  to  cut  out  simple  objects. 
He  can  soon  learn  how  to  cut  out  strange-looking 


56   MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

animals  and  people  from  folded  paper,  and  he  will 
be  far  more  interested  in  his  own  work  than  in  any 
you  can  make  for  him. 

Another  good  idea  is  to  draw  simple  figures  of 
people,  etc.,  and  let  him  cut  them  out  of  the  paper. 
This  teaches  him  to  hold  paper  and  scissors  steadily 
and  to  gain  coordination  of  mind  and  muscle. 

String  games  are  also  useful  for  this  purpose,  the 
parent  making  designs  with  strings  and  the  child 
striving  to  take  the  strings  from  his  parent's  fingers. 
All  babies  love  to  play  the  old-fashioned  string  game 
of  "see-saw,"  but  they  must  learn  how  to  hold  their 
fingers  steady  and  to  put  the  strings  on  their  own 
fingers  before  they  can  have  the  fun  of  pretending 
to  saw  wood  and  saw  the  string  in  two  parts. 

No  Apparatus  to  Teach  Buttoning,  etc. — I  am 
not  in  favor  of  any  apparatus  to  teach  children  how 
to  lace,  button,  etc.,  as  I  believe  that  they  should 
learn  to  button  and  to  lace  their  own  shoes.  The 
child  must  feel  that  everything  is  for  a  purpose  and 
this  purpose  is  of  good  service  to  some  one.  Again 
and  again  I  say  that  all  there  is  to  education  is  learn- 
ing self-control  and  the  joy  of  service  or  effort  ex- 
tended for  a  purpose  altruistic  and  not  selfish. 

The  Chautauqua  Industrial  Art  Desk. — This 
delightful  toy  or  combination  of  toys  carries  out 
my  ideas  of  everything  for  a  purpose.  Winifred  is 
so  sorry  that  this  desk  was  not  in  existence  when  she 
was  a  three-year-old.  She  thinks  that  if  it  had 
been  she  would  now  be  able  to  write  shorthand  at  a 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION   57 

terrific  speed  instead  of  being  but  a  beginner.  She 
would  have  learned  to  draw  without  going  to  art 
school  and  how  to  send  telegrams  and  write  after  the 
beautiful  Palmer  method  without  her  mother's  as- 
sistance. We  use  this  desk  in  all  our  Natural  Edu- 
cation Schools,  and  I  should  advise  all  mothers  to 
use  it  in  the  nursery. 

Yesterday,  while  paying  a  visit  to  a  friend  who 
was  going  on  a  trip  to  the  mountains,  her  little  son, 
Henry,  said  to  me,  "We  will  leave  my  horse,  Tom, 
behind,  but  of  course  we'll  take  our  books  with  us 
and  our  desk,  so  we'll  have  something  to  amuse  us 
on  rainy  days." 

This  desk,*  I  neglected  to  say,  can  be  folded  like  a 
book  and  carried  in  a  trunk.  It  can  be  hung  on  the 
wall,  set  on  a  table  or  chair,  or  placed  for  the  child's 
convenience  on  the  floor.  Even  babies  learn  to  turn 
the  roller  charts  and  see  what  will  come  next,  and 
mothers  who  know  how  to  direct  their  children's 
energy  can  keep  their  little  ones  occupied  in  doing 
things  which  pictures  on  the  roll  suggest. 

Crayons,  water  colors,  rulers  and  other  useful 
toys  which  I  have  always  used  to  help  make  educa- 
tion's path  one  of  pleasure,  are  in  this  desk. 

Colored  Pictures. — As  babies  will  not  pay  any 
attention  in  their  early  days  to  objects  which  are  with- 
out color  it  is  necessary  to  show  the  young  sprites 
pictures  that  are  highly  colored.  If  the  mother 
tints  copies  of  great  paintings  with  bright  colors 

*  Produced  by  Lewis  E.  Myers  and  Company,  Valparaiso, 
Indiana. 


58   MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

the  baby  will  first  be  attracted  by  the  beauty  of  color 
and  afterward  by  beauty  of  form. 

Art  books,  pictures  on  the  wall,  colored  photo- 
graphs and  even  postal  cards  will  help  the  mother  in 
her  endeavor  to  give  the  baby  some  idea  of  art. 
Some  form  of  a  mirrorscope  is  good  to  have  in  the 
home,  and  after  dinner  in  the  evening  the  whole 
family  can  enjoy  seeing  pictures  of  far-away  or 
at-home  scenes.  People  who  can  afford  the  moving 
pictures  are  most  fortunate.  They  are  an  education 
in  themselves,  but  for  some  years  to  come,  I  fear 
that  their  price  will  make  them  prohibitive  to  the  or- 
dinary home.  A  number  of  families  might  join  to- 
gether and  use  them  in  a  sort  of  social  center  way, 
thereby  giving  the  children  an  opportunity  to  see 
educational  pictures  without  going  to  public  moving- 
picture  theaters. 

Box  of  Small  Articles. — As  children  are  little 
they  like  little  things.  Anything  in  miniature  de- 
lights the  childish  eye.  Winifred  gave  ample  proof 
of  this  truth  to  me  under  the  most  trying  circum- 
stances. At  one  time  a  friend  showed  her  two  foot- 
ball candy  boxes — one  the  size  of  a  real  football, 
the  other  not  bigger  than  a  walnut.  The  child  knew 
that  both  were  full  of  candy  and  her  indulgent 
friend  was  sure  that  she  would  take  the  big  box. 
The  child  looked  at  both  boxes  and  then  she  said : 
"There  is  lovely  candy  and,  oh,  so  much  of  it  in  the 
big  football,  but  the  little  one  is  so  cunning  that  I 
will  take  it,  if  you  please." 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION   59 

Little  things  come  in  very  handy  in  teaching 
children  to  count,  spell  and  know  the  difference  in 
quality  of  different  objects  through  touch.  If  you 
can  train  a  baby  early  in  life  not  to  put  things  into 
his  mouth  you  can  begin  early  in  training  his  sense 
of  touch  through  playing  with  small  objects  which 
are  rough,  smooth,  sharp,  blunt,  etc. 

Begin  with  small  animal  forms  cut  out  of  card- 
board and  sandpaper.  Teach  the  baby  that  one  cow 
is  rough  and  the  other  smooth.  Rub  his  little 
fingers  on  the  rough  surface  and  say  "rough."  Rub 
them  on  the  smooth  surface  and  say  "smooth." 

Put  a  number  of  navy  beans,  buttons,  shells,  peb- 
bles, a  few  tacks,  pins,  grains  of  rice,  small  china 
animals  (such  as  can  be  bought  at  stores  where  fa- 
vors are  sold),  dice,  marbles,  jackstraws,  beads,  cof- 
fee beans  and  coins  in  a  large  box.  Blindfold  the 
children  and  let  them  draw  out  one  thing  at  a  time 
and  see  if  they  can  tell  whether  it  is  sharp,  blunt, 
rough,  smooth,  etc.  This  same  idea  can  be  fol- 
lowed with  older  children  on  Hallowe'en  when  they 
may  sit  in  a  long  row  and  some  one  may  pass  dif- 
ferent objects  for  them  to  name. 

Little  children  may  be  amused  by  separating  the 
rough  from  the  smooth  or  the  sharp  from  the  blunt 
objects  and  placing  them  in  separate  boxes,  pretend- 
ing that  these  are  trains  being  loaded.  I  have 
known  children  to  beg  for  my  box  of  "wotsat"  and 
to  find  great  fun  in  separating  the  rough-coated  kit- 
tens from  the  smooth  ones.  One  little  friend, 


60   MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

named  Marjory,  called  my  rough  kittens  "the  com- 
mon sort"  and  the  smooth  ones  "the  gentle,  nice 
kitties." 

One  little  boy  who  had  tendencies  to  commit  sui- 
cide by  eating  tacks  and  pins,  was  trained  to  keep 
these  out  of  his  mouth  through  playing  with  the  ob- 
jects in  this  same  box.  I  gave  him  a  uox  and  told 
him  to  put  all  of  the  bad  sharp  things  which  would 
kill  little  boys  in  one  box  and  showed  him  the  pins, 
needles,  tacks,  etc.  He  picked  these  out  very  gin- 
gerly so  they  would  not  prick  his  fingers,  put  them 
into  the  box  and  took  them  to  his  mother  saying, 
"Bad  zings;  hurt  Tommy.  Tommy  no  put  in 
mouth.  Oh,  no !"  And  he  kept  his  word  from  that 
time  on. 

With  beans,  pebbles  and  shells,  children  can 
find  much  amusement  forming  letters  and  different 
designs,  even  making  bean  people  and  bean  houses. 
Imaginary  ponds  may  be  built  from  shells  and  little 
celluloid  ducks  and  fishes  placed  in  them  to  make 
them  more  realistic. 

Mrs.  Adelia  R.  Hornbrook  has  invented  some 
very  interesting  games  to  play  "odd  and  even"  with 
these  beans.  The  mother  takes  a  certain  number  of 
small  objects  in  her  hand.  She  says,  "Odd  or  even?" 
The  child  guesses  whether  it  is  odd  or  even,  and  then 
mother  and  child  count  to  see  if  the  guess  has  been 
made  correctly. 

Any  mother  can  invent  all  sorts  of  counting 
games  with  these  small  objects,  teaching  the  child 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION   61 

first  how  to  count  the  number  of  objects  he  uses  in 
making  a  certain  design. 

Very  young  babies  should  be  helped  in  forming 
designs  by  mothers  drawing  the  outlines  for  them 
on  a  piece  of  paper. 

Pets. — Pets  teach  children  to  be  thoughtful  of 
others  while  they  furnish  amusement  and  develop 
the  bump  of  affection.  It  is  true  that  some  pets  have 
given  children  disease,  but  I  would  rather  run  the 
risk  of  my  child  catching  disease  than  to  deprive  her 
of  the  companionship  of  dogs  and  kittens.  If  there 
is  some  place  in  a  home  where  the  bird  may  be  free 
to  fly,  I  recommend  having  a  pet  canary,  but  if  the 
bird  must  be  always  caged  the  child  had  better  be  de- 
prived of  the  joy  of  having  a  canary  pet. 

We  have  a  wonderful  canary,  Okikusan  by  name, 
who  is  given  freedom  in  certain  parts  of  our  home 
and  who,  while  I  am  now  writing,  sits  on  the  car^ 
riage  of  the  typewriter  and  sings  to  me.  He  proves, 
what  love  can  do  for  any  living  thing  if  one  begins 
in  babyhood.  Okikusan  comes  to  me  when  I  call  him, 
and  seems  to  understand  what  I  say  to  him.  He  ha? 
learned  to  jump  a  rope.  He  sits  on  Winifred's  shouk 
der,  sings  in  perfect  tune  and  dances  up  and  down 
in  a  sort  of  rhythmic  accompaniment  when  she  plays 
on  her  violin.  He  loves  to  hear  good  music,  but  on 
one  occasion  when  a  little  girl  came  to  visit  us  and 
she  was  practising  her  scales,  he  became  enraged.  At 
first  he  did  nothing  but  sit  on  the  edge  of  the  piano 
and  scold.  Virginia  paid  no  attention  to  his  discon- 


'62   MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

tented  peeps,  and  in  order  to  make  her  discontinue 
playing,  he  jumped  upon  her  fingers  and  pecked 
them.  He  knows  our  intimate  friends  and  sits  on 
their  shoulders  when  they  come  to  call.  If  I  go 
away  from  home  he  flies  all  about  looking  for  me, 
and  when  I  return  he  sings  such  songs  of  welcome 
that  I  feel  assured  I  have  the  one  friend  which 
Emerson  says  makes  a  person  rich. 

It  may  not  be  convenient  to  have  birds  in  every 
home,  but  all  parents  in  moderate  circumstances 
can  provide  an  aquarium  for  the  children.  If  fresh 
water  be  given  to  the  fish  each  day  and  little  food, 
there  will  be  no  difficulty  in  keeping  goldfish.  The 
reason  that  these  fish  die  is  because  people  handle 
them  in  changing  the  water  or  they  give  them  too 
much  food.  I  have  kept  a  half  dozen  fish  in  a  round 
globe  for  several  years.  Each  day  I  let  nearly  all  of 
the  water  run  out  of  the  globe,  holding  my  hand  at 
the  side  so  that  the  fish  would  not  fall  out.  Then  I 
allow  water  from  the  cold  spigot  to  run  into  the 
globe  very  slowly.  In  this  way  the  fish  are  never 
touched  and  I  am  careful  to  remove  any  particles  of 
fish  food  which  they  do  not  eat. 

An  aquarium  is  not  alone  amusing  and  instructive 
to  children,  but  it  may  be  used  also  as  a  dining- 
table  centerpiece  and  thus  save  the  price  of  cut  flow- 
ers, in  addition  to  helping  to  teach  children  some- 
thing of  ichthyology. 

Stereoscope. — A  stereoscope  is  useful  to  in- 
terest a  child  in  photographs  and  pictorial  cards  to 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION   63 

which  he  would  not  be  attracted  without  seeing  them 
in  an  enlarged  state.  One  of  the  teachers  in  the 
Shaw  Natural  Educational  School  of  Pittsburgh 
takes  her  girls  on  a  journey  to  some  part  of  the 
world  at  least  once  a  week  through  the  use  of  the 
stereoscope  and  postal  cards. 

The  Victrola  or  Sonora. — These  producers 
of  so-called  "canned  music"  are  more  useful  in  the 
home  and  school  than  a  piano  or  even  a  piano  player. 
A  teacher  must  be  a  real  musician  if  she  is  to  educate 
her  children  to  love  classical  music  as  she  renders  it. 
She  must  take  much  time  for  practise  and  all  of 
her  attention  must  be  given  to  her  playing  when  pro- 
ducing music  for  the  children.  With  the  Victrola  or 
Sonora  the  teacher  can  play  with  the  children,  teach- 
ing them  exercises  in  eurhythmies  and  joining  in 
musical  games  while  a  fairy  machine  does  the  work. 

Through  this  machine  children  may  become  fa- 
miliar with  works  from  all  the  great  composers  and 
they  may  hear  the  voices  of  great  singers.  They 
may  be  trained  "to  go  into  the  silence"  and  relax  and 
rest  by  hearing  sweet  soft  melodies,  or  inspired  to 
march  and  dance  through  stirring  airs — and  all 
without  exertion  on  the  part  of  their  leader. 

One  of  my  natural  education  mothers  puts  her 
baby  to  sleep  with  lullabies  sung  on  the  Victrola  and 
she  amuses  him  during  the  day  by  the  use  of  lively 
airs  when  he  rebels  at  being  left  alone.  He  accepts 
the  music  as  good  company  and  does  not  object  to 
his  mother  leaving  him. 


64   MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

Child  Furniture. — One  reason  why  children 
are  naughty  is  because  homes  are  not  made  to  suit 
the  child's  needs.  How  seldom  do  we  find  homes 
which  have  been  built  to  make  children,  as  well  as 
adults,  comfortable  and  happy.  In  fact,  I  have 
never  seen  but  one  home  which  was  built  with  that 
purpose  in  mind.  The  owner  has  three  beautiful 
children  who  are  being  reared  upon  natural  educa- 
tional principles;  but  long  before  he  knew  of  my 
principles  he  believed  that  parents  owe  everything 
to  their  children,  and  that  when  little  ones  come 
into  the  world  everything  should  be  provided  to 
make  them  happy.  Accordingly  he  built  a  beauti- 
ful and  artistic  bungalow  with  low  window-seats, 
where  the  babies  could  sit  and  look  out  of  the  win- 
dows or  amuse  themselves  writh  games  and  picture 
books.  When  he  had  a  table  made  to  suit  himself 
and  his  wife  he  had  one  made  for  the  children. 
When  selecting  chairs  which  were  suitable  for 
grown-ups  he  had  similar  chairs  in  smaller  patterns 
made  for  his  three  boys,  and  he  followed  this 
idea  in  all  of  his  household  furnishings.  A  bath- 
room was  built  so  that  the  little  ones  could  stand 
before  a  small  low  lavatory  and  look  into  a  looking- 
glass  pitched  at  the  proper  height  and  angle  while 
they  washed  their  hands  and  faces. 

Everywhere  in  the  home  there  is  a  place  for  the 
children  and  the  whole  upper  floor  is  devoted  to 
their  use.  It  is  a  huge  playroom  containing  a  wig- 
wam and  all  sorts  of  toys  and  games  which  delight 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION   65 

the  childish  heart.    Here  on  rainy  days  the  kiddies 
play  and  feel  the  pride  of  ownership. 

Some  children  are  made  to  feel  that  they  are 
mere  slaves  who  must  ask  permission  to  look  at  a 


one  square  one  square  6/10  of  a  square 

Made  by  Winifred  to  teach  her  pupils  geometrical  figures  and  fractions 


66   MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

certain  book  and  who  dare  not  sit  on  certain  chairs. 
Many  boys  have  run  away  from  home  because  of 
the  constant  nagging  of  parents  concerning  house- 
hold furniture,  tracking  in  dirt,  etc.  I  have  a  friend 
who  tells  me  that  he  would  not  care  to  see  his  mother 
in  Heaven.  "For,"  he  says,  "if  mother  should  meet 
me  in  Heaven,  the  very  first  thing  she  would  say 
would  be  'Jim,  you  go  right  back  there  and  clean 
your  feet/  " 

Although  I  have  not  been  able  to  build  a  home 
suited  to  children,  yet  in  the  quarters  provided  for 
us  by  Uncle  Sam,  I  have  always  endeavored  to  give 
Winifred  some  portion  of  each  room  and  to  set 
aside  one  room  as  her  special  playroom.  Most  of  her 
toys  are  kept  in  the  playroom,  but  she  is  not  deprived 
of  bringing  her  doll  children,  favorite  books,  etc., 
into  any  room  in  the  house.  The  dolls,  however, 
must  be  treated  like  real  children  and  placed  in  com- 
fortable positions  upon  chairs,  etc.,  while  the  books 
must  be  laid  carefully  upon  a  table  or  window-seat. 

Winifred  has  been  trained  to  keep  her  playroom  in 
order  just  as  her  father  keeps  his  office  in  order,  ex- 
pecting a  visit  from  one  of  Uncle  Sam's  inspectors. 
As  a  baby  she  was  told  to  use  her  ten  fairy  fingers  to 
put  everything  in  order  after  her  day  of  play  because 
Titania,  queen  of  the  fairies,  paid  a  tour  of  inspec- 
tion each  evening  to  said  playroom  and  if  she  found 
tracks  of  the  "careless"  or  "untidy  gnome"  she 
was  much  displeased  and  not  inclined  to  put  nice 
gifts  beneath  a  little  girl's  pillow. 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION   67 

Plasticine. — A  box  of  plasticine  will  save  many 
mothers  from  worrying  into  the  gray-haired  state. 
All  children  love  to  make  mud  pies.  We  know  that 
this  sport  is  dangerous,  since  all  sorts  of  germs 
make  filthy  mud  their  nidus.  Plasticine  is  clean 
and  answers  the  same  purpose  as  the  mud.  Kiddies 
can  make  all  sorts  of  pies,  cakes,  marbles,  etc.,  out 
of  this  material,  and  better  still  try  to  make  busts 
of  those  they  see,  or  even  little  houses,  furniture, 
animals,  etc.  Many  rainy  days  have  passed  with- 
out troubling  Winifred,  a  child  reared  in  the  open, 
because  she  was  occupied  with  her  modeline,  which 
is  material  similar  to  what  is  now  called  plasticine. 

We  used  modeline  to  make  little  cakes  for  our 
bakery  shop.  These  we  ornamented  with  beads  to 
make  them  look  more  attractive.  We  made  diminu- 
tive potatoes  and  all  sorts  of  vegetables  to  sell  in 
our  grocery  store.  We  tried  to  design  buildings, 
and  Winifred  modeled  a  very  respectable  bust  of 
Shakespeare  (still  in  my  possession)  when  she  was 
not  six  years  of  age.  Each  day  she  tried  to  make 
some  new  animal  for  her  modeline  zoo,  using  her 
cardboard  animals  for  designs,  and  some  of  her 
representations  are  quite  remarkable. 

Just  now  one  of  my  two-year-old  friends  is 
seated  near  me,  busy  and  happy,  making  a  bird's 
nest.  Winifred  has  made  the  mother  and  father 
bird  for  him  and  has  placed  them  on  a  tree  twig. 
He  has  made  the  nest  and  is  now  making  the  eggs. 
It  is  true  that  said  eggs  look  more  like  the  old-time 


68   MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

doctor's  bread  pills  than  hen  fruit,  but  he  is  getting 
the  idea  and  is  happy  in  playing  for  a  purpose. 

A  Tree. — And  now  I  see  mothers  smile. 
Those  who  live  in  cities  may  experience  some  dif- 
ficulty in  getting  a  tree  and  those  who  live  in  smaller 
places  may  not  like  the  idea  of  having  a  common 
tree  in  their  home.  Recently  a  mother  who  earns 
her  living  by  washing  and  ironing,  wrote  to  me  ask- 
ing if  I  could  suggest  some  way  in  which  she  could 
keep  her  child  amused  while  she  was  at  work.  She 
said  that  he  kept  her  in  constant  misery  by  pulling 
open  her  machine  drawers  and  climbing  over  all  the 
furniture.  And  why  should  he  not  show  his  natu- 
ral curiosity  and  simian  instincts?  I  told  this 
mother  to  lock  her  machine  drawers,  give  the  child 
a  box  of  inexpensive  toys,  such  as  balls,  pebbles, 
blocks,  etc.,  but  above  all  to  fasten  a  small  tree  to 
the  floor,  put  cushions  beneath  it  (so  if  he  fell  he 
would  not  be  hurt)  and  let  him  enjoy  his  climbing 
instinct  on  the  tree  rather  than  on  articles  of  fur- 
niture. 

A  Natural  Educational  Tree  will  soon  be  on  the 
market.  This  tree  will  be  made  of  a  stout  trunk  to 
which  various  round,  smooth  sticks  will  be  adjusted 
at  certain  heights  adapted  to  the  size  of  the  child. 
The  trunk  will  be  arranged  on  a  small  platform 
which  will  be  fastened  to  the  floor.  This  tree  will 
not  be  an  eye-sore  in  any  nursery,  and  by  placing 
cushions  or  an  old  mattress  beneath  it  there  will,  be 
no  danger  of  a  child  falling  and  injuring  himself. 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION   69 

The  kiddie  will  not  get  dirty,  as  when  climbing 
natural  trees,  and  there  will  be  no  danger  of  hurting 
his  hands  or  eyes  with  rough  bark  and  twigs. 

Ladder. — A  small  ladder  is  also  useful  to 
amuse  the  children  and  to  develop  the  muscles  of 
their  limbs. 

The  Gamut. — Another  useful  toy  which  I  hope 
to  see  soon  manufactured  is  what  I  call  the  gamut. 
It  is  made  of  light-weight  blocks  two  inches 
wide  and  one  foot  long.  The  child  or  parent 
lays  these  blocks  in  a  row,  using  as  many  as  the 
length  of  room  will  permit  (fifteen  come  in  each 
set).  Then  the  child  tries  to  run  on  top  of  these 
blocks  without  stumbling.  I  begin  this  exercise  by 
first  drawing  a  chalk  line  on  the  floor  and  seeing 
how  well  the  baby  can  manage  his  steps  to  march 
on  this  line.  Then  he  tries  the  gamut  and  this 
leads  to  walking  the  rope.  This  exercise  should  be 
given  in  the  open,  using  a  rope  very  near  to  the 
ground  as  a  beginning.  At  first  the  mother  holds 
baby's  hand  and  helps  him  to  walk  across  the  rope. 
Then  he  tries  to  balance  himself  and,  as  a  trainer 
in  Barnum's  circus  told  me  recently,  "The  little  tots 
with  some  practise  each  day  soon  learn  to  balance 
themselves  as  easily  as  if  they  had  four  legs." 

Globe. — Anything  that  is  round  seems  to  be 
more  pleasing  to  a  baby  than  that  which  is  square. 
A  little  baby  will  try  to  hold  a  globe  and  find  pleas- 
ure in  turning  it  around.  The  individual  globes 
which  hang  from  a  string  and  have  something  in- 


70   MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

side  which  rattles  are  very  popular  with  children. 
We  use  these  globes  in  our  schools,  as  children  love 
to  feel  that  they  are  individuals  and  it  is  more  inter- 
esting for  each  child  to  have  a  small  globe  than  for 
all  of  them  to  have  one  large  one.  We  have  the 
large  one  in  the  center  of  the  room  and  the  teacher 
shows  the  children  some  particular  place  on  the 
globe.  Then  she  asks  him  to  find  this  place  on  his 
globe.  After  finding  a  certain  place,  a  story  is  told 
about  this  place,  or  song  sung,  so  that  the  children 
are  interested  and  want  to  learn  more.  Sometimes 
travel  games  are  played  by  teacher  and  pupil  pre- 
tending to  go  to  certain  points  and  using  a  tooth- 
pick as  the  traveler  journeying  from  place  to  place. 

A  Drum. — A  drum  is  the  easiest  instrument 
for  small  children  to  learn  how  to  play  in  order  to 
get  some  idea  of  rhythm.  After  they  grasp  this 
idea  the  drum  may  be  used  in  playing  marching 
and  rhythmic  games. 

Beads. — Beads  ever  give  delight  to  civilized  as 
well  as  to  savage  babies.  All  children  like  to  string 
beads,  and  these  same  little  fairies  may  be  used  as 
I  have  suggested  in  playing  with  plasticine  and  in 
teaching  the  child  to  count  and  to  learn  the  qualities 
of  various  articles  in  the  Wotsat  Box. 

Lotto. — This  game  is  useful  in  teaching  chil- 
dren the  numbers  and  in  gaining  accuracy  in  adding. 

Parcheesi. — A  most  useful  game  to  give  babies 
their  first  idea  of  counting.  Instead  of  using  the 
parcheesi  disks  the  game  may  be  made  more  inter- 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION   71 

esting  by  the  use  of  small  figures  of  any  kind.  A 
little  girl  to  whom  I  am  teaching  this  game  uses 
tiny  rabbits  and  imagines  that  the  rabbits  are  hop- 
ping along  to  the  home  nest. 

Dice. — Large  dice  are  most  useful  in  training 
children  to  count. 

Dominoes. — Very  young  children  may  learn 
something  of  the  relations  of  numbers  to  one  an- 
other, and  how  to  count  to  ten  by  playing  the  game 
of  dominoes. 

Maps. — Hanging  maps  can  be  made  as  inter- 
esting to  children  as  comic  pictures.  By  means  of 
these  maps  imaginary  journeys  may  be  made  from 
one  country  to  another  and  children  can  grasp  the 
relative  distances  of  one  land  from  another. 

Dissected  Maps. — The  dissected  maps  or  map 
puzzles  amuse  any  intelligent  child  if  the  parent  first 
teaches  him  something  about  the  different  parts  of 
the  map  he  is  trying  to  put  together.  Some  of  these 
puzzles  are  of  little  use  in  teaching  the  child,  because 
the  blocks  of  which  they  are  composed  do  not  rep- 
resent any  particular  country  or  state.  I  am  always 
particular  to  select  the  maps  where  states  or  coun- 
tries are  represented  by  their  proper  shape.  In  using 
the  map  of  the  United  States,  I  show  the  child 
Texas  as  the  largest  state  and  Rhode  Island  the 
smallest.  I  point  out  Pennsylvania  as  being  almost 
like  a  rectangle,  etc. 

Winifred's  star  pupil,  Billy  Walsh,  is  so  fond  of 
this  constructive  game  that  he  persuades  his  parents 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

to  play  a  game  with  him  almost  every  evening  so  as 
to  see  who  can  put  the  United  States  in  shape  during 
the  shortest  period  of  time. 

Marbles. — Marbles  are  useful  in  teaching 
many  counting  games  and  in  training  the  muscles 
of  the  eye  and  hand.  Jacks  may  be  used  in  the 
same  way. 

Jackstraws. — Jackstraws,  or  common  tooth- 
picks, help  in  many  games  of  fractions  and  in  giving 
children  some  idea  of  geometrical  figures. 

Magnet. — A  magnet  is  useful  in  entertaining 
the  child  while  teaching  him  scientific  truths  con- 
cerning the  laws  of  attraction. 

Perry  Prints. — Perry  prints  may  be  used  in 
teaching  little  ones  of  the  works  of  the  great  mas- 
ters. They  may  make,  scrap  books  with  these  pic- 
tures and  color  them  so  as  to  become  familiar  with 
their  outline.  Stories  should  be  told  of  said  pictures 
to  keep  up  the  interest. 

Abacus. — This  old-time  counting  instrument 
which  was  used  by  the  Chinese  and  Japanese  for 
many  centuries  is  a  great  helper  in  teaching  children 
to  count,  add,  subtract  and  multiply. 

Magnifying-glass. — A  magnifying-glass  is  use- 
ful in  showing  the  children  different  parts  of  the 
flowers  and  in  explaining  to  them  certain  laws  of 
physics. 

Tape  Line,  Ruler,  Yard  Stick.— These  meas- 
uring implements  should  be  in  every  nursery  where 
the  little  ones  can  early  be  taught  the  science  of 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION   73 

distance  and  contents.  Pint,  quart,  gallon,  peck  and 
bushel  measures  should  be  used  also  in  the  home 
school  so  that  the  little  ones  may  learn  to  know  the 
relation  of  one  quantity  to  another. 

Gold  and  Silver  Stars. — Cut  out  a  piece  of 
cardboard  in  the  shape  of  a  knight's  escutcheon,  and 
when  a  child  is  very  good,  give  him  a  golden  star. 
If  he  be  just  tolerably  good  he  receives  a  silver  star, 
but  if  he  be  naughty  no  star  is  given  to  him  to  paste 
on  this  knightly  emblem.  The  escutcheon  and  my 
character  charts  are  being  used  in  many  homes,  in- 
stead of  the  rod,  and  with  better  results. 

Xylophone. — Through  playing  on  a  xylophone 
children  gain  a  love  of  music  and  grasp  the  idea  of 
pitch. 

Kodak. — If  mothers  are  to  help  the  peace  god- 
dess they  must  be  careful  to  introduce  into  the  nurs- 
ery constructive  instead  of  destructive  toys.  How 
can  we  expect  our  sons  to  grow  up  lovers  of  peace  if 
we  encourage  them  to  take  life  by  giving  them  for 
their  first  Christmas  present  a  toy  sword  and  pistol, 
and  as  they  grow  up  allow  them  to  have  guns  with 
which  to  take  life.  How  much  better  to  teach  them 
to  shoot  at  their  bird  and  beast  friends  with  a  kodak 
instead  of  a  gun. 

One  of  the  best  gifts  to  present  to  a  young  mother 
at  the  birth  of  her  first-born  is  a  kodak  which  she 
can  use  to  take  pictures  of  the  baby  from  his  earliest 
days  until  he  reaches  manhood.  These  pictures  are 
always  a  delight  to  both  mothers  and  children. 


74   MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

Scrap  Book. — One  of  America's  noted  men  re- 
cently told  me  that  the  deepest  regret  of  his  life 
was  that  his  mother  had  never  kept  an  account  of 
his  early  sayings  and  had  made  no  scrap  books  with 
pictures  showing  him  in  the  childhood  state.  Be- 
ginning with  the  baby  book,  in  which  mothers  tell 
about  baby's  first  tooth,  first  step,  etc.,  mothers 
should  continue  this  system  of  keeping  scrap  books 
and  diaries,  and  their  grown-up  children  will  some 
day  feel  deeply  grateful  for  such  mementos  of  child- 
hood. 

It  is  a  good  idea  also  to  train  very  young  children 
to  keep  such  books.  Winifred  has  a  book  in  which 
she  has  pasted  certain  cards,  valentines,  letters,  pic- 
tures, etc.,  which  she  admired  in  her  baby  days. 

As  soon  as  she  could  write  she  kept  a  diary,  and 
these  early  diaries  will  be  more  interesting  to  her 
when  she  reaches  the  grandmother  stage  of  life 
than  they  are  now. 

Gymnasium  in  the  Home. — A  small  sliding 
board,  see-saw,  rings  from  which  to  hang  and  a 
trapeze  can  be  placed  in  almost  any  home  where  one 
large  room  is  devoted  to  the  children. 

Rocking  Horse. — A  rocking  horse  is  useful  to 
give  the  baby  some  notion  of  how  to  become  an 
equestrian  in  leaping  on  the  horse  and  in  sitting 
erect  and  holding  the  lines  properly. 

Paper  Dolls,  Celluloid  and  Rag  Dolls,  Stuffed 
Animals. — Paper  dolls  may  be  used  in  playing 
all  sorts  of  games  in  history,  literature,  etc.  Cellu- 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION   75 

loid  and  rag  dolls  are  necessary  in  enacting  various 
scenes  and  in  playing  keeping  house  or  going  to 
school.  Stuffed  animals  which  can  be  cleansed  in 
gasoline  add  to  the  interest  of  these  games. 

Toy  Stores,  Banks,  etc. — The  Stearn  Toy 
Company  of  Cleveland  sell  a  very  useful  toy  store 
which  contains  a  miniature  scale  and  small  packages 
of  rice,  flour,  etc.  Such  a  store  is  most  useful  in 
playing  games  in  arithmetic  and  in  learning  some- 
thing of  domestic  economy. 

Household  Toys. — Any  household  toys  which 
teach  children  how  to  keep  house  or  tools  which 
show  them  how  to  make  useful  articles,  such  as  are 
found  in  carpenter's  outfits,  and  in  outfits  furnished 
by  the  arts  and  crafts  people,  give  amusement  and 
show  the  child  how  to  play  for  a  purpose.  The  little 
girl  is  far  more  interested  in  weaving  a  basket  out 
of  rattan  and  raffia  than  she  would  be  in  mousing 
through  her  mother's  bureau  drawers ;  and  the 
young  lad  is  happier  striving  to  make  a  picture 
frame  than  if  he  were  engaged  in  sawing  the  piano 
legs. 

And  as  for  the  parents,  I  am  sure  that  they  are 
much  happier  to  see  their  children  engaged  in  useful 
occupations  than  to  have  them  working  out  their 
surplus  energy,  which  must  be  expended  in  some 
way,  through  destruction  of  property. 

Tea  Sets. — These  toys  are  useful,  not  only  in 
amusing  children  and  showing  them  something  of 
domestic  science,  but  in  training  them  to  coordina- 


76      MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

tion  of  mind  and  muscle.  The  baby,  who  early  in 
life  pretends  she  is  a  lady  pouring  tea  from  her  tiny 
teapot,  is  careful  not  to  spill  a  drop,  and  she  learns 
how  to  control  her  eyes  and  her  hand. 

Curios. — Curios  furnish  a  foundation  to  teach 
many  lessons  upon  many  subjects.  Through  cor- 
respondence with  foreign  Esperantists,  mothers  may 
secure  many  curios  by  sending  objects  representa- 
tive of  America  to  people  in  other  lands  and  receiv- 


These  cats  can  be  easily  drawn  by  any  child  with  a  fifty-cent 
piece  and  a  quarter 


ing  foreign  curios  in  exchange.  Geography  may  be 
made  a  live  topic  in  front  of  a  curio  case. 

Coins. — American  coins  are  a  great  help  in 
playing  store  and  in  showing  children  the  real  value 
of  money.  They  may  be  used  also  in  drawing  vari- 
ous designs.  Foreign  coins  teach  children  to  be- 
come familiar  with  foreign  currency. 

Centaphrase  French  and  Spanish  Games. — For 
mothers  who  can  not  afford  to  employ  a  French  or 
Spanish  teacher  these  games  are  most  helpful, 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION   77 

Language  Phone  Records. — Although  the  lan- 
guage phone  records  are  perhaps  too  expensive  for 
every  mother  to  use  in  teaching  her  children  for- 
eign tongues,  yet  they  cost  less  than  paying  a 
foreign  teacher,  and  they  teach  one  to  speak  with  a 
perfect  accent  and  to  use  correct  speech. 

I  would  suggest  that  several  mothers  buy  these 
records  in  partnership  and  instead  of  playing  bridge 
for  amusement  try  to  learn  a  language  which  they 
can  teach  to  their  little  ones. 

The  Candoit  Toys. — These  groups  of  little 
toys,  illustrating  the  classics  of  children's  literature, 
have  proved  invaluable  as  a  medium  of  oral  expres- 
sion for  the  child.  They  place  before  him  a  clear 
image  of  the  story  he  is  telling,  causing  him  to  for- 
get self -consciousness  and  in  no  way  hindering  his 
imagination. 

The  toys  lead  to  constructive  ideas.  All  children 
enjoy  putting  the  parts  together,  and  after  hearing 
the  stories  connected  with  these  toys  they  love  to 
tell  one  another  said  stories.  The  inventor,  Miss 
Edwina  Fallis,  has  arranged  the  following  stories 
to  be  used  in  toy  form : 

The  Three  Goats,  Gruff,  Goldilocks  and  the  Three 
Bears,  The  Journey  to  the  Mountains,  The  Three 
Little  Pigs,  The  Building  of  the  Home,  Tom  Scott's 
Circus  Wagon,  Santa  Claus  and  His  Reindeer,  Lit- 
tle Red  Riding  Hood. 

Louise  Brigham's  box  furniture  toys  are  also  use- 
ful to  teach  construction  to  children. 


78   MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

Storiator  toys  teach  little  ones  construction,  give 
them  something  to  amuse  them  when  they  have  no 
playmates  and  teach  them  how  to  express  their 
thoughts  in  story  form. 

The  Cincinnati  Educational  Card  Games. — 
These  games  upon  many  subjects  are  a  great  help 
to  both  teachers  and  pupils.  From  their  use  chil- 
dren may  become  familiar  with  most  of  the  wild 
animals,  birds,  trees,  flowers,  stars,  etc. 

The  Typewriter. — I  have  left  the  best  fairy  of 
all  until  the  last,  like  the  little  girl  who  saves  her 
best  t id-bit  to  eat  after  dinner.  In  the  line  of  an 
educational  toy  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  typewriter 
is  the  most  useful. 

Beginning  with  little  children  two  years  of  age, 
they  may  be  taught  to  know  their  letters  and  num- 
bers, yes,  even  punctuation  marks,  through  striking 
the  keys  on  a  typewriter.  They  have  no  difficulty 
in  learning  to  read  simple  text,  by  copying  same  on 
this  machine,  and  there  is  no  better  way  for  any 
one  to  learn  how  to  become  a  good  speller,  to  master 
the  approved  methods  of  punctuation  and  to  mem- 
orize anything  that  is  worth  remembering,  than 
through  writing  on  the  typewriter. 

It  also  strengthens  a  child's  fingers  so  that  he  is 
able  to  play  better  on  the  piano  or  violin  than  if  he. 
had  not  had  this  training. 

With  the  help  of  a  fairy  typewriter  I  have  taught 
a  number  of  children  to  read  simple  stories,  such  as 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION   79 

Peter  Rabbit  and  O' Shea's  Nursery  Classics,  in  less 
than  two  weeks.  I  can  safely  guarantee  that  any 
normal  child  can  be  taught  to  read  simple  sentences 
through  the  typewriter  route  in  ten  days. 

Recently  I  have  experimented  with  a  typewriter, 
using  script  type  to  teach  the  children  to  read  writ- 
ing and  to  give  an  idea  of  the  formation  of  letters 
and  how  they  look  when  used  in  writing  letters. 

I  place  the  typewriter  in  front  of  the  Chautauqua 
Industrial  Art  Desk,  show  the  child  "A"  on  the 
machine.  He  strikes  and  makes  an  "A"  for  him- 
self. Then  I  show  him  the  written  "A"  on  the 
Chautauqua  chart.  After  writing  a  few  words  or 
letters,  I  remove  the  typewriter,  give  him  a  piece 
of  paper,  and  let  him  try  to  make  the  letters  he  has 
written  on  the  typewriter,  which  are  before  him  on 
the  desk. 

Regardless  of  his  interest  in  this  writing  game,  do 
not  allow  him  to  try  to  write  for  more  than  ten  or 
fifteen  minutes  at  a  time.  Writing  on  the  typewriter 
will  not  cause  nervousness  to  any  child,  but  trying 
to  write  with  a  pencil  is  more  difficult  and  discour- 
aging. If  the  child  makes  too  many  attempts  to 
hold  his  pencil  properly  and  write  "A"  at  his  first 
lesson  he  will  feel  irritable  and  know  that  "he  has 
nerves." 

Older  children  may  write  long  letters  in  script  on 
the  typewriter,  read  them  aloud  and  copy  them. 
This  is  excellent  practise  in  learning  how  to  read 
script  easily  and  also  how  to  produce  it. 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

The  children  in  Natural  Educational  Schools  first 
learn  to  write  on  a  typewriter  with  type  showing 
printed  letters.  As  soon  as  they  can  write  short 
stories  or  letters  I  show  them  how  to  use  a  pencil 
in  writing  their  own  names  so  that  they  may  sign 
letters  they  write  and  send  them  to  their  friends. 

I  use  a  box  of  script  letters  as  designs.  The 
children  pick  out  the  letters  which  spell  their  names, 
place  them  together,  forming  the  desired  name,  and 
thus  get  an  idea  of  what  the  name  should  look  like. 
Sometimes  they  trace  the  letters  on  paper  and  some- 
times they  play  games  with  both  printed  and  script 
letters,  showing  two  letters  representing  a  certain 
letter  of  the  alphabet.  The  teacher  writes  a  child's 
name  on  a  piece  of  paper  and  he  tries  to  copy  it. 

Later  on  he  uses  the  typewriter  having  script  type, 
and  he  thus  learns  to  read  both  print  and  script. 


CHAPTER  IV 

TRAINING  THE  PHYSICAL  PART  OF  THE  CHILD'S 
TRINITY 

THERE  is  nothing  so  important  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  child  as  to  give  him  a  healthy 
body.  Of  what  use  is  an  abundance  of  knowledge 
and  a  keenly  developed  spiritual  nature  if  the  en- 
lightened mind  and  spirit  must  dwell  in  a  sickly 
body !  The  body,  which  is  the  most  wonderful  piece 
of  machinery  in  existence,  is  not  appreciated  by  par- 
ents and  children  to  its  true  worth.  If  we  neg- 
lected our  automobiles  as  we  do  our  bodies  the  ma- 
chines would  refuse  to  do  our  bidding,  and  as  a 
consequence  of  self -neglect  we  are  not  the  race  of 
healthy  beings  nature  intended  us  to  be. 

Prenatal  Influences. — Mothers  and  fathers 
should  think  of  the  health  of  their  unborn  children 
by  taking  care  of  their  own  bodies  through  habits 
of  right  living.  A  mother  does  not  eat  green  pickles 
and  drink  champagne  after  the  birth  of  her  child 
when  she  is  nursing  him,  but  she  sometimes  indulges 
in  indigestible  food  and  drink  before  the  little  one 
is  born.  She  should  think  of  her  diet  as  religiously 
before  the  child's  birth  as  after,  and  she  should  give 
him  a  heritage  of  smiles  and  good  cheer. 

81 


82   MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

Preparation  of  Nursery. — His  nursery  should 
be  prepared  along  hygienic  lines  with  simplicity  and 
yet  with  objects  of  beauty  to  develop  the  esthetic 
sense  within  him.  From  the  hour  of  his  birth  he 
should  live  in  an  atmosphere  of  love  and  his  five 
senses  which  nature  gave  for  his  protection  against 
many  dangers  should  be  developed  as  keenly  in  his 
nature  as  in  that  of  his  savage  brothers. 

Exercise  With  a  Stick.— To  develop  the 
muscles  of  his  back,  begin  when  he  is  about  six 
weeks  of  age  to  let  him  hold  to  a  stick.  Rely  upon 
his  simian  instinct  and  raise  the  stick  slowly  while 
he  will  hold  to  it.  Have  pillows  beneath  him  so 
that  if  he  falls  he  will  not  be  hurt.  But  I  have  sel- 
dom seen  babies  who  would  let  loose  from  a  smooth 
stick  by  which  they  were  being  lifted. 

Sense  Training. — In  my  book,  Natural  Educa- 
tion, I  tell  how  Winifred's  senses  of  hearing  and  of 
color  were  trained  through  having  a  set  of  bells  of 
different  tones  and  tied  with  different  colors  hung 
at  the  foot  of  her  bed.  I  would  ring  the  red  bell 
and  while  holding  it  up  so  as  to  attract  the  baby  by 
sound  and  by  sight  I  would  say,  "Red  bell."  In  the 
same  way  I  showed  her  the  other  bells.  At  first 
she  paid  no  attention  to  the  bells,  but  gradually  she 
began  to  observe  and  to  find  delight  in  both  the 
bright  colors  and  sweet  tones  of  the  bells,  and  soon 
she  learned  to  know  them  by  color  and  to  be  able  to 
ring  them  herself.  In  the  same  way  she  found 
pleasure  in  sitting  up  in  her  bed  and  driving  imagi- 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION   83 

nary  horses  with  a  pair  of  sleigh-bells  which  she 
loved  to  shake  ^-vigorously. 

First  Lessons  in  Ball  Playing. — Give  your 
baby  fresh  air  through  open  windows  and  walks  in 
the  open.  Try  my  plan  of  training  him  to  be  a  foot- 
ball player  through  kicking  a  ball  suspended  from  a 
string  attached  to  another  string  fastened  to  two 
chairs.  Give  him  daily  baths,  alcohol  rubs  and 
simple  exercises  such  as  letting  him  hold  to  your 
fingers  and  pulling  his  arms  gently  back  and  forth. 

Nurse  Baby  if  Possible. — If  possible,  nurse 
him.  If  not,  consult  the  best  physician  as  regards 
the  best  diet  for  him.  Always  remember  that  what 
is  meat  to  one  person  is  poison  to  another  and  that 
no  one  can  prescribe  a  certain  food  which  will  be  a 
benefit  to  all  babies. 

Mother,  First  Teacher  and  Nurse. — Nature  in- 
tended that  the  mother  should  be  her  child's  first 
nurse  and  teacher,  but  there  is  no  reason  why  the 
mother,  if  her  purse  can  afford  it,  should  not  have 
a  nurse  or  governess  to  help  her  care  for  her  child. 
Some  wealthy  people  pay  high  prices  for  cooks  and 
ladies'  maids  but  employ  cheap  help  for  their  chil- 
dren. 

When  children  are  ill,  parents  send  for  the  best- 
known  physicians,  regardless  of  price.  I  can  not 
understand  how  they  are  willing  to  trust  their  inno- 
cent babies  with  untrained,  untutored  nurses.  I  am 
striving  to  educate  a  number  of  mothers'  helpers 


84   MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

who  will  be  fitted  mentally,  physically  and  morally 
to  help  mothers  care  for  their  babies. 

Train  Mind  in  Cradle. — Do  not  be  afraid  to 
have  the  child's  mind  trained  in  infancy.  The  brain 
of  a  baby  does  not  double  its  size  from  two  and  a 
half  years  to  three  years  of  age  for  nothing.  It  is 
then  that  he  has  the  keenest  mind  and  he  should  be 
given  food  for  thought.  Fill  his  mind  with  beauti- 
ful thoughts  for  use  in  old  age  and  train  him  to  be 
a  busy  unit  of  society,  a  producer  as  well  as  a  con- 
sumer. Gaining  knowledge  does  not  destroy  his 
childhood  and  does  not  injure  him  as  long  as  he  is 
interested.  It  is  only  when  he  is  forced  to  use  his 
mind  that  the  brain  suffers,  and  with  it  the  body  and 
the  spirit. 

Training  Baby  to  Take  Care  of  Body. — Train 
him  to  care  for  his  body  and  to  glory  in  cleanliness. 
Impress  upon  his  mind  the  importance  of  keeping 
his  teeth  clean,  for  as  Doctor  Woods  Hutchinson 
says,  "We  are  just  as  old  as  our  teeth."  Show  him 
self-control  by  not  giving  way  to  temper.  Teach 
him  the  joy  of  service.  Keep  him  at  some  good 
work  and  he  will  be  healthy  and  happy.  The  mind 
does  not  suffer  from  good  healthy  exercise  of  the 
body  and  the  body  does  not  suffer  when  the  mind 
works  for  some  good  end. 

Parents  Patterns  for  Children.— If  parents 
want  good,  healthy,  happy,  intelligent  and  useful 
children  they  must  act  as  patterns  for  their  children, 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION   85 

and  if  the  little  ones  are  led,  not  driven,  by  their 
parents,  they  will  grow  up  into  improvements  upon 
parental  patterns. 


CHAPTER  V 


CHARACTER   BUILDING 

A  SHORT  time  ago  I  saw  an  advertisement 
showing  a  powerful  bull  striving  to  pull  a 
rope  from  the  hands  of  a  child.  His  efforts  were 
in  vain,  because  the  rope  was  fastened  securely 
around  a  stout  oak  tree  which  the  artist  called 
"Character,"  and  the  light  touch  of  the  child  at  the 
other  end  of  the  rope  held  the  powerful  beast  se- 
curely. 

If  we  give  our  children  good  characters,  we  give 
them  strength  which  can  not  be  taken  from  them. 
The  welfare  of  every  individual  and  of  society  at 
large  depends  upon  the  character  of  each  man, 
woman  and  child.  Some  mothers  may  ask,  "What 
is  character?" 

Doctor  John  W.  Carr,  president  of  the  Character 
Development  League,  says  it  is  self-control  and  self- 
giving  and  that  the  first  great  object  in  teaching 
character  is  to  awaken  a  desire  to  do  something  for 
somebody  else.  This  can  be  taught  only  through 
concrete  illustrations  of  self-devotion,  self-sacrifice 
on  the  part  of  teachers  who  wish  to  develop  noble 

86 


MANUAL  OF!  NATURAL  EDUCATION   87. 

characters  in  children.    This  is  the  object  of  natural 
education. 

To  develop  character  I  have  adopted  TEN  COM- 
MANDMENTS, which  should  be  used  with  self- 
control'  to  make  children  happy  useful  members  of 
society. 

My  Ten  Commandments 

Never  give  corporal  punishment. 

Never  scold. 

Never  say  "Don't." 

Never  say  "Must." 

Nerer  allow  a  child  to  say  "I  can't." 

Never  refuse  to  answer  a  child's  questions. 

Never  frighten  a  child. 

Never  ridicule  or  tease  a  child. 

Never  allow  a  child  to  lose  self-respect  or  respect 
for  his  parents. 

Never  banish  fairies  from  home,  the  most  attract- 
ive spot  on  earth. 

Never  Give  Corporal  Punishment. — I  look 
upon  whipping  as  a  relic  of  barbarism,  and  scolding 
has  driven  more  children  from  home  than  the  lash. 
[The  very  air  of  some  homes  is  reeking  with  the 
word  "DON'T."  It  is  not  necessary  to  use  this 
word  in  speaking  to  children.  When  you  wish  them 
to  stop  doing  something  which  is  not  to  your  liking 
direct  their  energies  into  other  directions.  Give 
them  something  positive  to  do  and  avoid  negative 
forms  of  speech. 


88   MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

Never  Say  Must. — I  consider  the  word  "must" 
as  a  tyrant's  expression.  Why  should  we  say  to 
Mrs.  Jones,  "Will  you  kindly  bring  me  a  book?"  and 
to  our  dearly  beloved  child,  "John,  you  must  pick 
up  your  toys."  If  we  are  living  examples  of  polite- 
ness in  the  presence  of  our  children  and  always 
address  them  in  polite  terms  they  will  respond  by 
being  polite  to  us,  and  polite  means  kind. 

Never  Allow  a  Child  to  Say  Can't.— "I  can't" 
is  a  coward's  word  which  parents  should  avoid 
using.  If  parents  say  "I'll  try"  instead  of  "I  can't," 
children  will  do  likewise,  and  the  I'll  try  fairy  will 
help  them  to  walk  along  paths  of  success  upon  which 
users  of  the  word  "I  can't"  will  never  tread. 

Never  Refuse  to  Answer  a  Child's  Question. — 
All  parents  find  it  difficult  to  follow  my  sixth  com- 
mandment— never  refuse  to  answer  or  at  least  try 
to  answer  all  questions  asked  by  children.  Every 
bright  child  is  a  living  interrogation  point.  He  is 
eagerly  seeking  for  knowledge  which  he  gains 
through  his  explorative  tool,  the  question.  Some- 
times parents  are  in  the  dark  and  can  not  answer 
his  questions.  In  the  early  days  Winifred  asked 
me  many  questions  that  I  was  unable  to  answer 
without  considerable  research.  Now  I  use  the  chil- 
dren's encyclopedia  which  answers  practically  every 
question  a  child  may  ask. 

Never  Frighten  a  Child. — It  seems  hardly  pos- 
sible to  believe  that  there  are  loving  mothers  in  this 
world  who  will  break  my  seventh  commandment 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION   89 

concerning  frightening  a  child,  but  I  have  found 
such  mothers.  They  use  this  means  of  subduing 
children  full  of  energy  and  thus  plant  seeds  for 
nervousness  and  unhappiness  not  only  in  childhood 
but  for  years  to  come. 

Never  Ridicule  or  Tease  a  Child. — Few  moth- 
ers break  the  eighth  commandment  forbidding  the 
teasing  or  ridiculing  of  children,  but  the  best  of 
fathers  are  often  guilty.  Big  boys  like  to  tease  little 
boys,  husbands  enjoy  teasing  their  wives,  and  the 
trait  sometimes  brings  about  disastrous  results.  If 
we  tease  a  dog  we  make  him  vicious  and  if  we  tease 
a  child  he  is  liable  to  become  irritable,  and  even  a 
criminal. 

Never  Destroy  a  Child's  Self-respect,  or  Re- 
spect for  its  Parents. — The  breaking  of  my  ninth 
commandment  has  caused  rivers  of  tears  to  be  shed 
by  young  people.  Some  parents  forget  that  young 
children  have  self-pride  and  deserve  respect  shown 
to  them ;  such  parents  will  scold  or  even  whip  their 
children  in  the  presence  of  strangers.  Thus  they 
destroy  the  child's  self-respect  and  when  that  is  gone 
he  is  lost.  If  we  continually  tell  a  boy  that  he  is  bad 
and  ugly  he  will  lose  respect  for  himself  and  live  up 
to  the  reputation  we  give  him.  If  we  tell  him  that 
he  is  good  and  beautiful  in  our  eyes  he  will  strive  to 
put  himself  in  the  picture  we  paint  of  him. 

If  you  wish  to  control  your  child  you  can  never 
allow  him  to  lose  respect  for  you  by  your  actions, 
speech  or  manner  of  dress.  Many  boys  and  girls 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

suffer  anguish  because  other  children  make  fun  of 
their  parents,  who  are  slovenly  in  speech  or  clothes. 
A  mother  who  gives  everything  to  her  child  and 
goes  like  a  rag-bag  is  not  respected  and  admired 
by  the  child,  who  is  often  ashamed  of  this  sac- 
rificing parent.  .We  must  keep  neat  and  clean  in 
appearance  and  up  to  date  in  knowledge  of  what 
is  going  on  in  the  world  if  we  are  to  maintain  con- 
trol over  our  children  through  keeping  their  respect 
for  us  at  the  top  notch. 

Never  Banish  Fairies  from  the  Home.— In  my 
tenth  commandment  lies  the  strongest  point  for 
making  good  citizens  and  producing  national  ef- 
ficiency ;  for  producing  great  inventors,  poets,  artists 
and  men  of  worth  in  all  walks  of  life — that  of  keep- 
ing fairies  in  the  home,  which  should  be  the  most 
attractive  spot  on  earth.  In  the  home  where  fairies 
are  banished  and  nothing  but  plain  cold  facts  are 
allowed,  where  imagination  is  not  courted  through 
games,  music,  beautiful  pictures,  works  of  sculpture, 
and  smiles  radiating  from  love,  there  can  be  no  cre- 
ative spirit,  no  great  joy;  and  children  who  can  not 
sing,  dance,  play  cards  and  have  a  good  time  at 
home  will  go  somewhere  to  enjoy  themselves;  and 
sometimes  this  somewhere  leads  to  destruction.  I 
am  not  a  believer  in  spending  hours  playing  bridge 
or  in  dancing  until  one  is  exhausted,  but  a  game  of 
cards  (not  necessarily  so-called  playing  cards,  but 
those  which  are  instructive)  and  dancing  and  sing- 
ing in  the  home  can  lead  to  no  more  harm  for 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION   91 

grown-up  children  than  can  fairy  tales  injure  the 
little  ones.  Fairies  develop  the  creative  faculty 
through  which  inventions  are  made,  discoveries 
brought  about,  music  composed,  painting  inspired, 
and  all  of  the  beautiful  and  good  things  of  life  are 
made  to  be  of  service  to  mankind.  It  is  fairies  who 
whisper  to  us  to  do  good  deeds,  fairies  who  banish 
sorrow,  fairies  who  bring  us  our  highest  hopes  and 
inspirations.  If  we  do  not  become  acquainted  with 
these  sprites  in  childhood,  we  shall  never  learn  to 
love  them,  and  we  shall  go  plodding  along  to  life's 
end  without  once  getting  on  the  heights  of  Imagina- 
tion. I  appeal  to  you,  good  mothers;  court  the 
fairies!  Keep  them  by  your  smiles  in  your  home 
and  encourage  your  little  ones  to  lead  good  pure 
lives  through  telling  tales  of  what  the  good  fairies 
have  done  and  can  do. 

I  have  always  used  these  sprites  to  help  me  keep 
order  and  discipline  in  my  home.  They  were  charm- 
ing substitutes  for  the  rod,  and  they  assisted  me 
often  in  quelling  noises  caused  by  Winifred  expel- 
ling quantities  of  nervous  energy.  Little  Quiet 
Fairy  would  come  to  visit  us  and  bring  some  nice 
gift,  if  we  would  rest  and  relax  for  a  few  minutes 
so  that  not  a  sound  could  be  heard.  Queen  Titania 
came  at  night  and  changed  coffee  beans  placed  be- 
neath Winifred's  pillow  to  candy,  and  sour  lemons 
placed  in  the  corner  of  her  nursery  were  changed  to 
sweet  oranges  or  applies.  If  Winifred  had  been  a 
naughty  girl  during  the  day  she  was  punished  by 


92   MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

the  consequence  of  her  own  act,  and  she  knew  that 
the  good  fairy  could  not  come  to  see  her.  Thus  she 
felt  no  bitterness  toward  her  mother,  but  was  sorry 
that  she  had  been  naughty. 

If  this  same  little  girl  had  been  careless  and  left 
her  dolls  on  the  floor,  Neat  Fairy  came  and  hid  the 
dolls  where  Winifred  could  not  find  them  for  sev- 
eral days. 

Another  help  to  keep  the  rod  away  and  yet  main- 
tain discipline  in  our  home  has  been  escutcheons 
upon  which  golden  stars  were  put  each  evening  for 
good  conduct,  cheerfulness,  neatness,  self-control, 
etc.  It  has  always  been  our  habit  to  examine  these 
escutcheons  every  Saturday  night;  to  make  new 
resolutions  if  the  charts  did  not  bring  rewards,  and 
then  either  to  destroy  or  put  them  away  so  they  will 
not  bring  unhappiness  for  the  coming  week.  Many 
of  my  natural  education  mothers  and  teachers  are 
using  these  character  charts  and  getting  wonderful 
results.  The  mother  of  five  children,  being  reared 
a  la  natural  education,  writes  me  that  her  four- 
year-old  boy  is  so  proud  of  his  escutcheon  that  she 
has  to  nail  it  to  a  block,  so  that  he  may  carry  it 
around  with  him  while  he  is  playing.  At  night  he 
brings  it  to  his  mother  with  the  hope  of  gaining  a 
new  star,  and  when  he  receives  a  star  he  is  as  happy 
as  Alexander  conquering  new  worlds. 

There  are  few  mothers  who  adopt  the  Solomon 
rule  to  whip  their  children  for  moral  growth.  They 
;\vhip  only  when  they  are  angry.  After  the  anger 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION      93 


* 

* 


* 
* 
* 


* 

* 

* 


* 

-1C 


* 
* 


* 

* 


5 


94   MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

cools,  they  kiss  the  delicate  flesh  of  the  spanked 
baby  and  feel  like  criminals,  while  the  babies  think 
that  they  are  martyrs.  Nature  intended  that  we 
all  must  suffer  from  the  consequence  of  our  act,  but 
she  did  not  intend  that  we  were  to  be  driven  into 
right  paths  of  living  with  the  rod.  Parents  must 
guide  their  little  ones  through  example,  and  if  these 
little  ones  show  perversity  then  they  must  suffer 
from  some  deprivation  until  they  are  willing  to  fol- 
low the  straight  pathway  leading  to  eternal  truth 
and  happiness. 


CHAPTER  VI 

REQUIREMENTS   FOR   NATURAL   EDUCATIONAL 
SCHOOLS 

NATURAL  Educational  Schools  aim  to  pre- 
pare for  the  great  object  of  life — parenthood. 
Most  of  our  colleges  give  students  information  upon 
all  subjects  tending  to  make  them  efficient  men  and 
women — except  the  most  important  subject  of  how 
to  prepare  for  parenthood. 

First-born  children  are  used  as  experimental  mate- 
rial for  young  parents.  Rearing  children  is  too 
serious  a  problem  to  be  left  to  chance.  It  is  our  duty 
to  know  how  to  care  for  the  mental-physical-moral 
trinity  of  our  children  before  we  bring  them  into  the 
world,  which  is  but  a  stepping-stone  to  future  worlds 
and  eternity, 

Schools  Like  Homes. — In  our  Natural  Educa- 
tional Schools  we  strive  to  teach  parents  to  care 
for  the  physical  side  of  their  children  and  we  show 
them  how  to  develop  the  mental  and  moral  side  of 
youth  through  playing  games  and  telling  stories  to 
the  little  ones  and  also  through  personal  example. 

In  good  weather  all  instruction  is  given  to  the 
children  in  the  open,  but  in  bad  weather  we  play  in 

95 


96   MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

our  schoolrooms,  which  have  no  resemblance  to  the 
old-time  static  seats  of  learning.  Everything  is  ar- 
ranged to  make  these  rooms  look  like  home.  There 
are  good  pictures  on  the  walls  to  give  the  little  ones 


Made  by  Winifred  to  teach  her  pupils  geometrical  figures  and  fractions 

an  appreciation  of  art  in  early  childhood,  since  we 
believe  that  this  will  help  them  to  go  through  the 
world  with  eyes  open  to  the  beauty  of  art  in  all 
forms  of  nature. 
With  the  same  object  in  view,  we  have  a  few 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION   97, 

copies  of  great  works  of  sculpture  on  brackets,  man- 
tels and  shelves. 

Curio  Cabinet. — In  each  schoolroom  we  have 
a  curio  cabinet.  Until  war  cut  off  our  correspond- 
ence with  people  of  all  nations  through  Esperanto, 
we  received  many  of  these  curios  from  foreign 
Esperantists  to  whom  we  sent  little  tokens  from  this 
country.  Such  a  curio  cabinet  gives  the  teacher 
many  opportunities  to  interest  young  children  in 
people  of  other  lands  and  to  teach  the  little  ones 
something  about  foreign  countries  from  both  the 
geographical  and  the  historical  standpoint. 

Dynamic  Instead  of  Static  Schoolroom. — 
There  are  no  stationary  desks  or  tables  in  our 
schoolrooms.  Each  child  has  his  own  light  chair, 
which  he  can  carry  with  him,  and  our  tables  are  so 
light  that  they  can  be  moved  to  different  places. 
The  Louise  Brigham  furniture  is  ideal  for  nurseries 
and  schoolrooms,  because  of  its  lightness,  adaptabil- 
ity and  practicability.  Instead  of  blackboards, 
which  fill  the  air  with  choking  dust,  we  use  large 
sheets  of  manila  paper,  upon  which  we  write  with 
colored  crayons.  The  schoolrooms  are  never  touched 
with  the  old-time  janitor's  broom  and  dust-cloth. 
Vacuum  cleaners  and  mops  are  substituted. 

Following  Japanese  Customs. — Believing  that 
the  European  and  American  fashion  of  wearing  the 
same  shoes  in  the  house  that  are  worn  in  the  street 
is  a  filthy  and  dangerous  custom,  I  encourage  the 
children  to  leave  their  street  shoes  at  the  door  and 


98   MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

to  wear  slippers  when  they  enter  the  natural  educa- 
tional playroom.  I  have  taught  them  to  admire  the 
Japanese  children  who  follow  this  custom,  and  also 
to  adopt  the  Japanese  habit  of  smiling,  never  say- 
ing disagreeable  things,  and  being  tactful  or  polite 
to  every  one. 

Books  on  Window-Seats. — There  are  low  win- 
dow-seats in  all  of  these  schoolrooms,  and  on  these 
may  be  found  such  books  as  The  Book  of  Knowl- 
edge, The  New  Standard  Dictionary,  the  delightful 
books  of  Beatrix  Potter  (Peter  Rabbit,  Benjamin 
Bunny,  etc.),  and  Six  Nursery  Classics  edited  by 
Doctor  O'Shea. 

Interest  in  Plants. — To  interest  children  in 
plant  life,  we  encourage  the  little  ones  not  only  to 
have  gardens  of  their  own,  but  to  plant  seeds  in 
boxes  which  we  put  in  window-seats.  Where  we 
have  not  much  space  we  use  Mr.  Bigelow's  wonder- 
ful plant  food  and  keep  flowers  growing  in  water. 
We  wet  sponges,  sprinkle  canary  seed  over  them, 
and  find  great  delight  in  watching  the  seeds  grow. 
In  some  of  our  schools  the  teachers  have  made  col- 
lections of  peculiar  plants  which  are  always  most  in- 
teresting to  children,  Winifred  takes  pleasure  in 
sending  teachers  samples  of  the  marvelous  Venus 
fly-trap  which  is  indigenous  to  the  flora  of  our  pres- 
ent home  in  North  Carolina. 

Live  Things. — All  motion  arouses  interest  in 
children.  An  aquarium  containing  goldfish  and 
small  turtles,  tadpoles,  etc.,  furnishes  inspiration 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION   99 

j 

to  teachers  and  food  for  thought  among  the  chil- 
dren. 

Use  of  Victrola  or  Sonora. — We  use  the 
tools  or  toys  described  in  another  chapter.  A  Vic- 
trola or  Sonora  is  indispensable.  Through  these 
instruments  we  can  teach  eurhythmies  and  dancing 
in  connection  with  songs  in  foreign  languages.  A 
piano  is  a  valuable  adjunct  to  any  schoolroom,  but 
when  the  teacher  must  play  this  instrument  she  can 
not  lead  the  children  in  eurhythmic  work. 

Candoit  Toys. — I  have  found  that  the  Can- 
doit  toys  are  a  delight  to  all  children.  They  prove 
my  best  helpers  in  teaching  children  ideas  of  con- 
struction. 

Fairy  Typewriter. — The  fairy  typewriter  oc- 
cupies a  most  important  place  in  every  natural  edu- 
cational schoolroom,  and  through  its  help  children 
gain  a  knowledge  of  reading,  spelling,  punctuation 
and  good  English  without  any  hard  work.  This 
good  machine  helps  them  also  in  memorizing  beauti- 
ful thoughts  of  great  minds  and  in  strengthening  the 
fingers  so  that  they  can  play  with  greater  ease  on  the 
piano  or  violin. 

Seeking  Knowledge. — When  children  tire  of 
active  games  they  are  encouraged  to  sit  on  the 
cozy  window-seats  and  seek  for  knowledge  in  The 
Book  of  Knowledge.  When  questions  are  asked  by 
the  children,  which  the  teacher  does  not  know,  both 
teacher  and  pupils  run  to  the  children's  encyclopedia 
to  seek  for  the  answers.  I  believe  with  Socrates 


100    MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

that  interest  must  be  aroused  in  pupils  to  seek  infor- 
mation through  questions  and  this  information 
given  by  answers. 

Teaching  Abhorrence  of  War. — In  each  school 
we  have  at  least  one  copy  depicting  a  Verestchagin 
scene  of  war  horror.  We  do  not  encourage  the  chil- 
dren to  look  at  this  picture  constantly,  since  we  be- 
lieve in  keeping  the  cheerful  things  uppermost  in 
his  mind,  but  we  teach  him  to  abhor  the  "War  De- 
mon" by  showing  him  the  devastation  wrought  by 
hatred  of  one  nation  for  another;  and  each  day  we 
preach  universal  peace  in  our  stories  and  in  our 
games.  If  we  are  to  have  peace  in  this  world  we 
must  train  young  children  to  abhor  war,  and  this 
training  must  begin  in  the  nursery  and  be  carried  on 
in  the  schools.  "We  are  as  our  ideals."  If  we  make 
warriors  ideals  of  manhood,  children  will  strive  to 
become  warriors  and  wrar  will  go  on  forever.  If 
we  teach  ideals  of  peace  and  love  through  self-con- 
trol, lack  of  bigotry,  and  admiration  for  the  con- 
structive genius  we  are  leading  to  the  reign  of  peace. 

Peace  Tongue  —  Esperanto. — To  encourage 
children  in  a  love  of  all  mankind,  we  teach  them  the 
peace  tongue,  Esperanto,  the  international  medium 
of  communication,  which  I  believe  will  help  to  break 
down  barriers  between  nations;  and  as  soon  as  the 
children  learn  to  write  in  this  language  they  send 
postal  cards  and  letters  to  children  living  in  foreign 
lands. 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION  101 

Individual  Training. — Believing  that  each' 
child  should  receive  individual  training  if  he  is  to 
develop  the  talent  or  tendency  nature  gave  him,  we 
allow  but  ten  children  in  each  school.  And  knowing 
that  children  can  not  concentrate  their  energies  for 
more  than  fifteen  minutes  we  never  play  any  game 
over  ten  minutes,  so  that  we  stop  playing  while  the 
interest  is  keen  and  the  little  ones  call  for  the  same 
game  on  the  next  day. 

Our  teachers  are  encouraged  to  smile,  regardless 
of  any  heartaches,  and  to  play  with  real  spirit  with 
the  children.  School  lasts  but  two  hours,  and  as  we 
are  constantly  changing  our  games  there  is  no  rea- 
son why  either  teacher  or  pupil  should  become 
weary. 

Rewards  and  Punishments. — Each"  day  we 
offer  some  reward  for  good  behavior,  as  I  believe 
that  it  is  a  natural  impulse  to  work  better  when  some 
bright  prospect  is  in  view.  Some  of  our  greatest 
financiers  acknowledge  that  efficiency  in  their  help 
comes  from  offer  of  reward.  We  are  all  working 
for  some  reward  on  this  earth  or  in  the  world  to 
come,  and  the  promise  of  some  prize  is  particularly 
inspiring  to  little  ones.  It  is  only  just  also  that  a 
child  who  has  been  told  the  consequence  of  a  wrong 
act  should  suffer  from  the  consequence.  This  is 
nature's  law. 

We  steer  clear  of  the  whipping  Scylla  and  scold- 
ing Charybdis  and  use  Love  and  Interest  as  spurs, 


MANUAL  OP  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

but  we  show  our  displeasure  when  children  are 
naughty  by  banishing  them  from  the  roll  of  knight- 
hood or  leaving  their  escutcheons  without  golden 
stars. 

Developing  the  Imagination. — Above  every- 
thing we  strive  to  accomplish  is  developing  the  imag- 
ination or  creative  faculty  through  fairy  stories, 
pageants  and  playlets. 

No  one  can  be  a  natural  educational  teacher  who 
does  not  believe  in  fairies,  and  we  use  these  little 
sprites  to  help  us  in  all  of  our  educational  games. 
We  believe  that  children  should  have  freedom,  but 
we  do  not  believe  in  throwing  them  into  a  pond  and 
telling  them  to  swim.  We  believe  it  is  better  to 
follow  Mother  Duck's  plan  and  show  them  how  to 
swim.  Believing  that  the  memory  age  closes  at 
twelve  years  and  that  the  mind  is  keenest  from  the 
age  of  two  and  a  half  (when  it  doubles  in  size)  to 
the  sixth  year,  we  encourage  parents  to  begin  in- 
tensive play  leading  toward  learning  different  lan- 
guages when  babies  are  but  two  years  of  age.  All 
languages  are  taught  by  the  natural  or  direct  method 
of  training  the  ear  before  the  eye,  and  music  is 
taught  in  the  same  way  through  eurhythmies.  When 
mothers  can  not  speak  languages  they  may  use  lan- 
guage phone  records. 

Teaching  Children  to  Draw. — As  one  of 
the  best  ways  for  a  human  soul  to  express  itself  is 
through  drawing,  our  children  all  learn  something 
of  this  art.  First  by  drawing  on  a  sand  board  made 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION    103 

by  wetting  sand  and  rolling  it;  next  by  gathering 
leaves  and  laying  these  leaves  on  white  pieces  of 
paper  and  outlining  them ;  next  by  copying  geomet- 
rical figures  which  they  first  make  with  sticks,  and 
finally  by  striving  to  make  original  sketches  show- 
ing their  opinions  concerning  the  sky,  sea,  etc.  The 
Chautauqua  Industrial  Art  Desk  is  a  great  help  in 
this  work. 

No  Examinations. — In  my  endeavors  to  intro- 
duce natural  educational  ideas  in  homes  and  schools 
I  am  not  criticizing  teachers,  who  deserve  crowns  of 
glory,  but  I  am  fighting  against  some  of  the  in- 
quisitional tortures  which  exist  in  the  schoolroom 
and  lead  to  the  wreckage  of  nerves,  happiness,  and, 
in  some  cases,  death  of  innocent  children.  Chief 
among  these  tortures  is  that  of  examinations.  They 
are  no  test  of  what  a  child  knows  and  often  cause 
him  untold  anguish.  Fear  of  not  passing  and  being 
considered  an  inferior  person  has  even  led  to  suicide 
and  insanity.  When  a  teacher  talks  with  a  pupil 
each  day  she  surely  ought  to  have  some  idea  of  how 
much  he  knows. 

General  Information  Books. — In  our  schools 
we  use  question  boards.  Each  morning  the  chil- 
dren come  to  school  and  ask  questions  concerning 
things  they  want  to  know.  The  questions  are  read 
aloud  to  all  the  children  and  when  no  one  can 
answer  them  we  turn  to  the  children's  encyclo- 
pedia, The  Book  of  Knowledge.  Children  who  can 
write  have  General  Information  Books  in  which 


104    MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

they  put  down  each  day  the  information  they 
have  gained  beneath  the  date  and  subject,  "What 
I  have  Learned."  They  write  in  these  books 
instead  of  having  regular  writing  lessons  or  copy- 
ing set  phrases.  They  are  very  proud  of  their 
books,  try  to  keep  them  neat  and  do  not  feel  lack  of 
interest  when  writing  because  they  know  they  are 
writing  for  a  purpose.  At  the  end  of  the  month 
the  books  are  examined,  and  according  to  neatness, 
completeness,  accuracy,  etc.,  they  are  given  rewards 
of  golden  stars.  Every  star  is  counted  during  the 
year,  and  the  pupil  gaining  most  stars  is  crowned 
queen  or  king  at  the  end  of  the  term  and  given  a 
prize. 

We  encourage  our  children  to  Keep  their  General 
Information  Books  as  a  help  to  them,  should  they 
become  parents  or  teachers,  and  we  find  that  the 
knowledge  we  give  them  is  retained  far  better  than 
it  is  in  pupils  who  cram  for  examinations. 

I  believe  that  it  is  just  as  cruel  and  as  useless  to 
give  examinations  as  it  is  to  dig  up  plants  to  see  if 
their  roots  are  growing.  Sometimes  the  plants  die 
as  a  result  of  such  digging. 

Moving  Pictures. — In  time  we  hope  to  intro- 
duce moving  pictures  into  all  of  our  schools  and 
through  them  teach  children  of  different  customs  in 
various  lands,  stories  of  history,  geology,  elemen- 
tary chemistry,  botany,  etc. 

No  Patent  on  Natural  Educational  Tools. — 
There  is  no  patent  on  any  games  used  in  our  schools. 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION    105 

Any  parents  who  are  willing  to  study  for  a  short 
time  with  a  trained  natural  educational  teacher  can 
found  a  school  in  their  own  home ;  or  two  or  three 
families  may  join  together  to  form  a  neighborhood 
school.  All  that  is  required  for  a  Natural  Educa- 
tional School  is  good  environment  and  teachers  who 
love  children,  know  how  to  smile  and  have  the  abil- 
ity to  arouse  interest  in  the  pupil  as  well  as  to  give 
information  through  cooperation  with  him  in  devel- 
oping observation,  concentration  and  the  power  to 
imitate  and  to  explore  for  himself. 


CHAPTER  VII 

TEACHING  THE   CHILD  TO  READ,   SPELL,    PUNCTUATE 
AND  RHYME 

I  AM  a  firm  believer  in  a  child  learning  the  letters 
before  he  puts  them  together  in  words.  Any 
two-year-old  baby  can  be  taught  his  letters  through 
games  with  blocks  and  anagrams  and  by  showing 
him  the  letters  on  the  typewriter  and  asking  him  to 
find  them  "for  mother." 

I  used  large  red  glazed  letters,  which  I  pasted  on 
white  cardboard  and  placed  as  a  border  around  the 
nursery,  to  give  my  child  her  first  ideas  of  letters. 
I  began  by  showing  her  letter  "A"  and  asking  her 
to  point  out  "A''  among  her  blocks  and  "A"  with 
her  anagrams.  We  talked  of  "A"  and  only  "A" 
until  she  knew  that  letter  perfectly.  Then  we  exam- 
ined "B"  with  two  humps  on  his  back  and  learned 
to  know  him  wherever  we  saw  him  in  books  or  on 
sign-posts  in  the  streets.  We  knew  the  sound  of  all 
letters  from  singing  them  to  the  air  of  Zn  Lantcr- 
bach,  but  we  became  acquainted  with  the  letters 
by  learning  to  know  them  by  sight,  one  at  a  time. 

Word  Families. — After  Winifred  knew  all  of 
her  letters  as  individuals  we  began  to  form  them 
into  families.  We  would  take  a  box  of  anagrams 
and,  using  a  number  of  small  pill  boxes,  we  put  all 
of  the  "a"  letters  by  themselves,  the  "b"  letters  in 

106 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION     107 


another  box,  etc.  Any  -baby  finds  this  great  amuse- 
ment, but  do  not  let  the  little  one  work  until  he  is 
tired.  Help  him  with  his  task  so  that  not  much  time 
will  be  expended  in  this  game.  Then  teach  him 
about  the  family  of  words  beginning  with  the  simple 


The  child  should  learn  his  letters 

AT  family.  One  of  .Winifred's  correspondents  has 
sent  her  a  number  of  keys  which  he  uses  in  teaching 
children  to  spell,  and  we  are  using  his  idea  for  our 
family  of  words.  We  have  one  large  key  which  we 
hang  on  a  nail  and  call  it  FATHER  AT.  Then  a 
number  of  small  keys  arc  marked  bat,  cat,  fat,  gat, 
hat,  mat,  nat,  pat,  rat,  sat,  tat,  vat.. 


108    MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

The  mother  asks  her  child  to  find  cat,  which 
belongs  to  the  AT  FAMILY,  rat,  etc.,  and  to 
hang  the  keys  marked  with  these  words  on  top  of 
FATHER  AT.  All  children  like  this  game,  and  it 
..can  be  played  with  different  large  keys,  each  marked 
,for  some  other  family,  as  an,  ad,  ox,  etc.  Instead  of 
keys,  rings  may  be  used. 

Buzzing  Bees  Spelling  Game. — In  my  book, 
Natural  Education,  I  describe  a  spelling  game 
which  Winifred  and  I  call  "Buzzing  Bees."  We 
would  arrange  the  alphabet  in  a  perpendicular  line, 
and  then,  following  each  letter,  we  would  see  how 
many  AT  bees  we  could  make.  We  found  that  we 
'could  use  b  to  make  bat,  c  to  make  cat,  but  we 
could  do  nothing  with  d,  so  we  put  a  mark  on  him 
and  called  him  a  drone.  We  found  that  he  had  lots 
of  company  with  e,  g,  i,  j,  k,  I,  n,  o,  q,  u,  w,  x,  y 
and  #.  The  working  bees  we  named  a,  b,  c,  f,  h,  m, 
p,  r,  s,  t  and  v,  as  they  formed  at,  bat,  cat,  fat,  hat, 
'mat,  pat,  rat,  sat,  tat,  vat.  Then  we  counted  our 
workers  and  found  there  were  but  eleven,  while 
there  were  fifteen  drones.  In  playing  "Bee-Hive" 
we  found  that  there  were  generally  more  drones 
than  workers. 

This  Buzzing  Bee  game  can  be  tried  with  many 
combinations  of  letters,  and  after  words  have  been 
formed  it  amuses  children  to  make  simple  rhymes 
about  the  words  they  have  spelled. 

Anagrams. — Anagrams  lend  their  aid  to  the 
parent-teacher  in  helping  her  to  give  her  pupil  an 


)N 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION    109 

idea  of  letters  in  many  combinations  of  words. 
"Building  Word  Castles"  delights  all  young  chil- 
dren, and  this  is  a  game  which  even  grown-ups  en- 
joy. At  least  the  Stoner  family  find  delight  in 
playing  with  anagrams  and  seeing  who  can  form 
the  longest  words,  or  in  making  the  most  stepping- 
stones.  In  this  game  each  player  draws  a  letter  from 
the  anagram  pot  in  the  center  of  the  table.  Each 
letter  is  placed  in  front  of  player  and  each  player, 
in  turn,  takes  another  letter,  trying  to  form  a  word 
with  his  own  letters  or  by  taking  letters  from  his 
companions.  The  game  continues  until  a  certain 
goal  is  reached  by  one  player  having  made  a  word 
of  an  agreed  upon  number  of  letters  or  by  the  one 
making  the  greatest  number  of  stepping-stones  out 
of  words. 

In  forming  word  castles  with  very  little  children 
I  often  use  blocks  and  celluloid  animals,  such  as  one 
may  purchase  in  the  ten-cent  store,  or  the  cardboard 
animals,  bought  at  any  kindergarten  supply  shop. 
After  the  child  spells  the  word  cat  with  his  ana- 
grams or  writes  it  on  the  typewriter,  I  illustrate  the 
word  with  a  picture. 

Use  of  Typewriter. — Children  learning  to  read 
on  the  typewriter  are  allowed  to  copy  but  a  few 
letters  at  once  so  that  they  will  be  intensely  inter- 
ested. If  they  copy  a  line  from  Peter  Rabbit  sev- 
eral times  on  the  machine  and  then  play  spelling  bee 
either  with  other  children  or  with  their  parents  they 
learn  to  spell  the  words  as  well  as  to  read  them. 


110    MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

In  order  to  impress  certain  words  upon  the  child's 
mind  I  have  written  a  number  of  pages  which  I  have 
illustrated  with  amusing  drawings  concerning  the 
different  domestic  animals.  On  the  cow  page  I  re- 
peat the  word  COW  in  every  sentence  so  that  the 
,baby  will  see  COW  as  the  word  to  remember. 

On  this  page  let  us  say  we  shall  use  the  following 
sentences : 

The  COW  gives  milk. 

The  C  O  W  eats  grass. 

The  COW  says  "Moo !" 

The  C  O  W  has  horns. 

In  familiarizing  the  child  with  the  word  CAT, 
I  use  a  page  with  the  picture  of  a  cat  and  the  sen- 
tences : 

The  CAT  laps  milk. 

The  CAT  eats  rats. 

The  CAT  meows. 

All  of  these  games  are  useful  in  showing  children- 
how  to  build  words  after  they  know  their  letters, 
but  I  have  found  no  more  fascinating  way  to  teach 
reading  than  through  the  typewriter. 

One  of  my  two-year-old  pupils  amazed  a  Pitts- 
burgh audience  in  a  natural  educational  demonstra- 
tion by  writing  the  letters  of  the  alphabet  as  his 
mother  dictated.  He  was  so  fascinated  \vith  the 
typewriter  that  he  paid  no  attention  to  the  audience, 
and  his  mother  tells  me  that  since  he  began  learning 
to  write  on  this  fairy  machine  she  has  had  no  trouble 
in  keeping  him  "a  good  boy."  Each  morning  when 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION    111 

he  awakens  he  says,  "Frederick  is  such  a  good  boy 
to-day.  He  will  write  on  the  typewriter  just  now." 

Typewriter  a  Substitute  for  Grammar  and 
Spelling-book. — Henry  Hardesty,  a  four-year- 
old  natural  education  kiddie,  taught  himself  all  of 
the  names  of  different  grains  by  copying  them  on  the 
typewriter.  I  have  never  found  a  child  who  was 
not  interested  in  this  machine.  At  a  number  of  pub- 
lic demonstrations  I  have  taken  children,  who  had 
never  before  seen  a  typewriter  used,  and  have  shown 
them  the  letters  in  "Peter"  and  asked  them  to  find 
these  letters  on  the  machine's  keyboard  and  to  strike. 
IP,  every  case  the  child  was  so  interested  as  to  be  ob- 
livious of  the  audience  and  having  seen  "P"  in  the 
book  he  would  find  it  on  the  typewriter  and  almost 
scream  with  joy  after  striking  the  letter  to  find  an- 
other one  like  it  on  the  white  paper. 

And  not  only  children  but  grown-ups  can  learn  to 
become  good  spellers  through  writing  on  a  type- 
writer, copying  selections  from  the  classics. 

I  have  found  this  machine  invaluable  in  helping 
me  to  put  my  thoughts  into  concrete  form.  Speak- 
ers who  wish  to  present  their  subjects  without  using 
notes  will  find  it  much  more  simple  to  speak  upon 
any  subject  after  having  written  with  the  typewriter 
the  chief  points  upon  which  they  wish  to  speak. 

It  is  my  earnest  hope  that  typewriters  will  be  sub- 
stituted in  the  public  schools  for  grammars  and 
spelling-books,  and  that  they  will  be  considered  as 
necessary  as  the  piano  and  sewing-machine. 


12  MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

Recently  a  college  graduate  who  was  trying  to 
secure  a  position  as  a  private  secretary  said :  "It  is 
a  sad  truth  that  we  college  graduates  do  not  have 
as  much  chance  to  secure  good  positions  as  secre- 
taries or  in  offices,  as  girls  who  have  attended  busi- 
ness college  and  have  not  had  a  bachelor  of  arts  or 
bachelor  of  science  course.  We  have  never  learned 
the  typewriter,  and  although  we  think  that  we  have 
more  intelligence  and  are  far  better  fitted  to  do  a 
secretary's  work,  yet  because  we  do  not  know  how 
to  pound  a  typewriter,  we  are  left  to  hunt  positions 
easily  secured  by  girls  without  our  training." 

"True,"  I  replied,  "but  girls  with  superior  train- 
ing can  learn  to  do  something  which  a  two-year-old 
child  can  do.  And  you  should  use  your  efforts  to 
persuade  all  colleges  to  train  their  students  in  the 
use  of  this  practical  machine,  since,  more  and  more, 
all  letters  will  be  typewritten  and  less  and  less  writ- 
ing will  be  done  with  the  pen.  The  old  fogy  no- 
tion that  it  is  not  polite  to  use  a  typewriter  in 
friendly  letters  is  already  dead.  People  realize  that 
the  pen  is  but  an  instrument  to  convey  thought, 
even  as  the  typewriter,  and  that  the  latter  instru- 
ment is  by  far  the  safer  thought  conveyer." 

Punctuation  Taught  on  a  Typewriter. — There 
is  certainly  no  better  way  to  teach  a  child  to 
punctuate  than  by  means  of  a  typewriter.  Last 
winter  when  a  visitor  came  to  see  my  school  in 
Pittsburgh  I  asked  Winifred's  pupil,  four-year- 
bid  Billy  Walsh,  to  copy  something  on  the  type- 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION    113 

writer.  Billy  copied  a  page  from  his  favorite  book, 
Peter  Rabbit,  and  in  my  pride  to  show  how  well 
he  could  write,  I  pulled  the  sheet  from  the  type- 
writer before  he  had  added  a  semicolon  to  his  last 
line.  "Oh,  Patrino  Stoner !"  cried  little  Billy  in  a 
grieved  tone,  "why  didn't  you  wait  until  I  wrote 
the  semicolon?" 

I  am  safe  in  saying  that  not  many  children  of 
Billy's  age  know  the  difference  between  a  period  and 
a  colon  or  even  trouble  themselves  to  know  what 
a  period  is.  All  unconsciously  and  with  no  mental 
exertion,  Billy  has  learned  to  punctuate  simple  sen- 
tences by  copying  short  storiesaon  the  typewriter. 

When  children  begin  to  read,  I  believe  in  giving 
them  short  and  interesting  stories  for  reading  ma- 
terial rather  than  the  disconnected  sentences  often 
found  in  reading  books. 

Reading  with  Expression. — In  order  to  teach 
the  child  to  read  with  expression,  read  a  page  to 
him  and  see  that  he  thoroughly  understands  the 
meaning.  Then  when  he  reads  this  page  or  the  por- 
tion assigned  to  him,  he  will  read  it  in  an  under- 
standing and  expressive  rather  than  a  sing-song 
voice. 

One  of  the  best  ways  to  teach  reading  with  ex- 
pression and  to  develop  the  imagination  is  to  en- 
courage the  children  to  dramatize  what  they  have 
read  and  to  impersonate  the  different  characters. 
The  Aldine  readers  are  written  for  this  purpose  and 
also  to  teach  children  to  make  original  rhymes. 


114  MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

Mothers  can  help  their  children  to  read  by  select- 
ing books  with  large  print  and  by  reading  aloud  to 
the  little  ones  while  pointing  to  the  words  being 
read.  The  children  will  follow  the  mother  as  she 
reads  and  soon  they  will  know  many  of  the  words 
and  recognize  them  when  seen  on  other  pages. 
Then  the  mother  should  let  the  child  help  her  read, 
and  when  he  comes  to  words  he  does  not  know,  she 
should  help  him  over  the  stumbling  blocks. 

Mark  Unfamiliar  Words. — In  reading  books  it 
has  always  been  my  habit  to  mark  any  words  with 
which  I  am  not  familiar  and,  after  seeking  for  their 
meaning  and  derivation  in  the  dictionary,  to  write 
this  information  on  the  margin  of  my  book.  Wini- 
fred does  not  approve  of  my  method  of  making 
marginal  notes  in  books,  but  she  seeks  for  the  same 
information  and  writes  it  in  her  General  Informa- 
tion Book. 

Direct  the  Reading. — From  the  first  reading 
days  parents  should  direct  the  course  of  reading  pur- 
sued by  their  children.  It  is  not  Iwiv  much  we  read 
but  how  well  we  read  and  what  we  read.  We  must 
all  agree  with  Bacon  that  there  are  but  few  books 
out  of  the  many  thousands  published  yearly  which 
are  fit  to  be  masticated  and  digested.  If  the  others 
are  not  worthy  of  digestion,  then  why  should  we 
waste  our  eye-sight  and  time  in  reading  them? 

Too  Much  Reading. — Not  long  ago  a  man 
boasted  to  me  that  he  read  a  different  magazine  each 
day.  He  was  such  a  hollow-headed  fellow  that  I 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION    115 

felt  no  hesitancy  in  asking  him  what  he  gained  by 
this  prodigious  amount  of  reading,  and  I  was  not 
surprised  when  he  answered:  "Oh,  nothing  at  all. 
I  don't  read  them  for  information,  but  for  amuse- 
ment." 

We  can  not  account  for  people's  tastes.  r(S>ome 
people  enjoy  going  to  funerals.)  But  we  can  direct 
our  children's  reading  so  that  they  will  learn  to  love 
the  best  that  is  in  literature  and  not  waste  their  time 
in  reading  trash. 

Let  us  train  our  little  ones  to  become  acquainted 
with  good  books  and  show  them  that  these  books 
will  remain  their  life-long  friends. 

During  the  past  year  Winifred  has  commenced 
making  a  collection  of  sentences,  passages  and  even 
chapters  from  certain  books  which  delight  her. 
With  these  she  has  her  favorite  poems,  and  she 
finds  much  happiness  in  having  what  she  calls  her 
"Literary  Goodies  in  a  Nutshell."  As  time  goes  on 
and  she  adds  to  this  book,  I  am  sure  it  will  become 
a  source  of  great  joy  to  her. 

There  are  many  books  of  select  quotations  and 
extracts,  but  no  one  can  make  a  book  with  all  of 
our  favorites.  Each  of  us  has  a  distinct  opinion 
and  therefore  we  must  make  our  own  "Literary 
Goodies  Book." 

Keeping  Personal  Note-Books  and  Diaries. — 
I  am  a  great  advocate  of  personal  note-books  with 
collections  of  one's  own  ideas  and  bits  of  general 
information. 


116    MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

Samuel  Pepys  in  the  pages  of  his  diary  has  given 
us  more  real  inside  information  of  the  history  of 
his  day  than  most  historians,  and  I  believe  that 
every  child  should  gain  pleasure,  practise  writing 
and  learn  to  express  his  ideas  by  keeping  a  diary  in 
which  records  are  made  of  the  important  events  of 
each  day. 

A  child  who  can  not  write  well  with  a  pen  can 
use  the  typewriter  and  thus  learn  to  express  his 
thoughts  in  written  form  even  while  he  is  yet  in 
babyhood  state. 

Teaching  Children  to  Make  Rhymes.— The 
past  century  was  an  exoteric  age  and  poets  were 
not  in  high  favor.  Some  men  who  reached  high 
places  on  Fame's  ladder,  through  inventions  or 
business  routes,  went  so  far  as  to  revile  the  writer 
of  verse  and  to  look  upon  him  as  a  "long-haired 
fool."  Now  the  world  is  changing  its  opinions  and 
poets  are  once  more  in  favor.  The  master  minds 
realize  that  the  highest  forms  of  thought  expression 
are  in  poetic  dress  and  that  the  greatest  and  best 
literature  of  all  ages  has  come  to  us  in  this  guise. 

"Woe  be  to  the  land  where  one  no  longer  sings !" 
Goethe  spoke  truly  when  he  said : 

"Wer  der  Dichtkunst  Stimme  nicht  vernimmt, 
1st  ein  Barbar,  er,  sei  auch  wer  es  sei." 
(And  who  the  voice  of  poesy  disdains 
Is  a  barbarian,  be  he  who  he  may.) 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION  117, 

I  am  a  firm  believer  in  teaching  children  poems 
of  the  great  masters  just  as  soon  as  they  can  talk 
and  in  encouraging  the  babies  to  make  jingles  about 
the  dog,  pig,  hen,  doll,  etc.,  \vhich  can  be  easily 
rhymed. 

Rhyming  Games. — Winifred  has  made  a 
rhyming  game  for  herself  which  she  enjoys  very 
much.  Into  a  box  she  has  put  a  number  of  inch 
cards  cut  from  pasteboard  upon  which  she  has  type- 
written many  words  which,  as'  she  says,  "belong  to 
the  same  singing  society."  As  an  example — Ant, 
Tjant,  cant,  chant,  grant,  pant,  plant,  rant,  slant, 
decant  and  discant  all  belong  to  the  same  chorus. 

Cap,  chap,  clap,  dap,  flap,  gap,  hap,  Jap,  lap,  map* 
nap,  pap,  rap,  sap,  scrap,  slap,  snap,  strap,  tap,  trap, 
wrap  belong  to  another  singing  bee. 

All  of  these  words  are  thrown  carelessly  into  the 
chorus  box  and  each  player  draws  out  a  word  as  in 
playing  anagrams.  When  a  player  is  lucky  in  get- 
ting a  word  which  rhymes  with  words  she  has 
already  drawn  she  must  make  some  rhyme  of  two 
lines,  bringing  in  the  rhyming  words  at  end  of  each 
line  or  she  has  to  throw  back  both  words  upon  cen- 
ter of  the  table  and  give  next  player  a  chance  to 
make  the  jingle. 

The  player  who  makes  the  most  jingles  wins  the 
game.  Sometimes  it  is  surprising  what  good  ideas 
of  meter  children  have  without  a  real  knowledge  of 
prosody,  and  there  is  no  better  way  to  train  the 
metric  sense  than  through  this  game. 


118    MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

List  of  Rhyming  Words. — The  following  list 
of  rhyming  words  made  by  Winifred  for  ner  games 
may  be  a  help  to  mothers  and  teachers : 

Bab,  cab,  crab,  dab,  drab,  grab,  nab,  scab,  slab, 
stab,  tab. 

Back,  black,  crack,  hack,  jack,  knack,  lack,  pack, 
plaque,  quack,  rack,  wrack,  sac,  sack,  sfyack,  slack, 
smack,  stack,  tack,  track,  alack,  attack,  nick-nack, 
almanac,  bric-a-brac,  cardiac,  maniac,  zodiac,  de- 
moniac, hypochondriac. 

Ace,  base,  brace,  case,  chase,  face,  grace,  lace, 
mace,  pace,  place,  race,  space,  trace,  abase,  apace, 
debase,  deface,  disgrace,  displace,  efface,  embrace, 
grimace,  misplace,  outface,  out  place,  replace,  unlace, 
interlace,  interspace. 

A  great  favorite  with  children  is  the  AT  family 
of  rhyming  words. 

At,  bat,  cat,  chat,  fat,  flat,  gat,  gnat,  hat,  mat,  pat, 
rat,  sat,  spat,  tat,  that,  cravat,  acrobat. 

Another  favorite — the  OG  family. 

Og,  bog,  clog,  dog,  fog,  flog,  frog,  gog,  grog,  hog, 
jog,  log,  prog,  catalogue,  decalogue,  demagogue, 
dialogue,  epilogue,  monologue,  pedagogue,  syna- 
gogue. 

The  IT  family. 

It,  bit,  chit,  fit,  flit,  grit,  hit,  kit,  knit,  lit,  pit,  quit, 
sit,  skit,  slit,  spit,  split,  twit,  whit,  wit,  acquit,  admit, 
befit,  commit,  emit,  omit,  outwit,  permit,  refit,  remit, 
submit,  tid-bit,  tomtit,  transmit,  unfit. 


. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

(GAINING     A     PRACTICAL     KNOWLEDGE     OF     MATHE- 
MATICS  THROUGH    GAMES 

MATHEMATICS,  the  science  which  has 
caused  many  students  to  shed  tears,  can  be 
made  the  most  fascinating  of  studies.  What  we 
need  is  less  problem  solving,  fewer  theorems  to  be 
demonstrated,  and  more  axioms  or  self-evident 
truths  and  practical  routes  of  arriving  at  them  to 
be  given  to  our  children. 

I  believe  that  it  is  fallacious  to  teach  a  child  only 
arithmetic  in  the  grade  schools,  keeping  all  knowl- 
edge of  algebra  and  geometry  from  him  until  he 
reaches  the  high  school.  Some  children  forget  all 
that  they  have  learned  about  arithmetic  when  they 
study  algebra ;  and  again  algebra  is  forgotten  when 
they  study  geometry.  In  fact  I  have  known  children 
who  seemed  proud-sto  have  forgotten  the  arithmetic 
problems  they  learned  in  a  lower  grade.  One  little 
lad  boasted  to  me  that  he  never  thought  of  fractions 
nowadays  because  he  was  working  in  decimals. 

It  is  foolishness  to  spend  hours  solving  problems 
and  to  study  many  theorems  if  we  are  not  going  to 
make  use  of  them  in  life.  Education  in  its  real  sense 
is  to  fit  us  for  life's  work. 

119 


120  MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

Teaching  All  Branches  of  Mathematics  at  One 
Time. — There  is  no  reason  why  very  young  chil- 
dren should  not  learn  about  geometrical  figures  and 
be  taught  to  seek  for  them  in  the  objects  around 
them.  Simple  problems  in  algebra  can  be  worked 
by  children  in  the  grades  as  easily  as  long  questions 
in  multiplication  and  addition. 

Some  of  my  pupils  find  great  pleasure  in  working 
simple  problems  in  algebra  even  before  they  are 
able  to  solve  difficult  problems  in  arithmetic.  They 
delight  in  talking  of  the  mysterious  unknown  X 
and  are  able  to  solve  mentally  such  questions  as  the 
following : 

If  John  has  10  marbles  and  Peter  has  two  times 
as  many  as  John,  how  many  have  both  boys  to- 
gether? 

x  —  10  John 
2x  —  20  Peter 


Both  3x  —  30  or  the  number  that  both  boys  have. 

Tommy  has  three  times  as  many  oranges  as 
James  and  together  they  have  32.  How  many  has 
each? 

Let  X  be  the  number  of  oranges  Tommy  has. 

3  X  is  the  number  James  has. 

4  X  is  the  number  both  have  or  32. 

Then  X  or  Tommy's  number  is  one-fourth  of 
32  or  8. 

And  3X  James*  number  is  3  times  8  or  24. 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION  121 


Let  the  children  copy  these  designs;  learn  the  names  of  the  figures  they 

represent;  and  after  cutting  out  their  copies,  let  them 

try  to  form  a  square 

Very  small  children  find  more  pleasure  in  draw- 
ing geometrical  figures  and  distinguishing  equilat- 
eral triangles  from  isosceles  and  learning  the  dif- 
ference between  a  right  angle,  obtuse  angle  and 
acute  angle  than  they  do  in  working  sums. 

Making  Geometrical  Designs. — Winifred  has 
made  a  large  box  full  of  all  sorts  of  geometrical 
figures  for  Billy  Walsh.  He  has  a  railroad  train 
which  he  builds  out  of  powder  boxes,  such  as  can  be 
purchased  at  a  drug  store.  On  these  boxes  are 
marked  the  names  of  various  figures,  and  he  de- 
lights in  putting  all  of  the  squares  into  the  imagi- 
nary car  marked  "Squares,"  "right  angles"  into  car 
marked  "Right  Angles,"  hexagons  into  "Hexagon 
car,"  etc.  He  has  become  perfectly  familiar  with 
these  figures  just  as  he  has  with  musical  notes  and 
his  letters. 

At  present  he  is  making  a  number  of  these  figures 
for  himself  and  is  grasping  the  relation  of  different 


122    MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

figures  to  one  another.  The  last  time  that  I  saw  Billy 
he  explained  to  me  that  a  square  had  four  right 
angles  and  so  had  a  rectangle.  "But,  you  see,  Pa- 
trino,"  he  said,  "all  of  the  sides  of  a  square  are 
the  same  size,  while  only  those  across  from  each 
other  are  equal  in  the  rectangle."  We  had  not 
taught  him  this  fact,  but  he  had  learned  it  by  real 
reasoning  or  comparison. 

He  makes  circles  with  dollars,  bottles,  glasses,  etc., 
and  divides  them  into  various  parts,  and  he  has 
much  fun  in  trying  to  make  designs  with  said  circles 
and  other  geometrical  figures. 

All  of  the  children  in  our  Natural  Educational 
Schools  are  taught  truths  of  higher  mathematics 
from  the  very  beginning.  They  do  not  waste  time 
in  working  out  abstruse  problems,  but  learn  the 
practical  things  of  life,  all  of  which  are  mentioned 
in  the  game  which  Winifred  has  written  to  help 
her  remember  necessary  information  concerning 
mathematical  truths. 

First  Lessons  in  Counting. — I  gave  Winifred 
her  first  knowledge  of  numbers  by  pasting  large  red 
figures  on  a  piece  of  white  cardboard  and  putting  it 
on  her  nursery  wall.  I  pointed  to  the  figure  1,  told 
her  it  wras  called  "one"  and  meant  just  one  thing, 
as  one  finger,  one  piece  of  candy,  one  block,  etc. 
Then  I  pointed  to  "two"  and  showed  her  two 
fingers,  two  blocks,  two  pieces  of  candy  and  so  on 
until  I  had  pointed  out  and  explained  all  of  the 
numbers  to  ten.  Each  day  I  would  bounce  a  ball 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION     123 

and  count  as  I  bounced  it  or  I  would  throw  it  to  her 
and  count  as  she  and  I  threw  it  to  each  other.  When 
I  brushed  her  hair  I  chanted  the  jingle  about  "One, 
two,  buckle  my  shoe,"  but  was  careful  to  give  just 
two  strokes  for  fear  of  puzzling  the  child  as  to  the 
exact  meaning  of  "two."  When  we  took  walks 
we  counted  flowers,  birds,  children,  etc.,  and  after 
having  learned  to  count  to  one  hundred  in  English 
we  practised  counting  in  other  languages.  I  gave 
Winifred  some  idea  of  the  relation  of  numbers  and 
quantities  by  teaching  her  to  count  bites  as  she  ate 
fruit  or  cakes  and  by  playing  with  her  blocks  and 
dolls  through  taking  away  and  adding  different 
numbers  of  the  objects.  Unfortunately,  the  study 
of  mathematics  had  been  the  bete  noir  of  my  early 
days,  and  although  I  had  little  trouble  in  teaching 
Winifred  to  count  and  to  make  change,  I  could  not 
keep  Fairy  Interest  as  my  helper  when  I  tried  to 
teach  the  tables  to  my  little  girl.  She  refused  to 
sing  "Two  ones  make  two,"  and  I  am  afraid  the 
doorway  to  realms  of  "Matematiko"  would  have 
remained  closed  to  her  mind  had  I  not  met  the  noted 
mathematician,  Adelia  R.  Hornbrook. 

When  Winifred  was  five  years  old  she  made  a 
tour  with  me  to  help  gain  converts  for  Esperanto. 
At  that  time  she  had  written  both  jingles  and  prose 
stories  which  editors  of  magazines  and  newspapers 
considered  worthy  of  publication.  She  had  made  a 
translation  oj:  Mother  Goose  in  Esperanto  which 
attracted  the  attention  of  educators  all  over  the 


124    MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

world.  She  could  express  herself  in  eight  different 
languages,  scan  the  whole  of  the  first  book  of  the 
JEneid,  give  lengthy  recitations  in  a  number  of  lan- 
guages and  make  impromptu  speeches  in  Esperanto. 
She  was  conversant  with  the  principal  constellations 
in  the  heavens,  knew  all  of  the  Scandinavian,  Gre- 
cian and  Roman  myths,  had  a  very  respectable 
knowledge  of  history,  literature  and  botany,  besides 
knowing  something  of  the  various  "ologies"  and 
"isms";  and  yet  she  knew  almost  nothing  concern- 
ing the  science  of  quantity.  As  my  object  in  life 
was  to  make  her  a  well-rounded  happy  being  and  as 
she  rebelled  against  learning  her  tables  I  was  dis- 
couraged and  began  to  think  that  she  was  lopsided. 

At  Chautauqua,  New  York,  where  Winifred  was 
tested  by  a  number  of  educators  to  whom  she  taught 
Esperanto,  I  met  Mrs.  Hornbrook.  To  her  I  con- 
fided my  fears  concerning  the  child's  "lopsided- 
ness."  She  asked  me  to  leave  Winifred  alone  with 
her,  and  after  talking  with  the  child  she  told  me 
that  the  teacher,  not  the  pupil,  was  lopsided.  She 
explained  to  me  that  with  my  love  of  music,  litera- 
ture, languages,  etc.,  I  could  keep  Fairy  Interest 
with  me  in  imparting  knowledge  concerning  these 
branches,  but,  as  I  disliked  mathematics,  I  had  not 
been  able  to  attract  the  Interest  Fairy.  Where  this 
inspiring  sprite  does  not  go,  there  is  no  love,  no 
advancement  along  knowledge  pathways. 

Being  a  veritable  missionary  in  striving  to  teach 
children  to  love  mathematics,  Mrs.  Hornbrook  con- 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION  125 

sented  to  teach  Winifred  through  the  mail.  Each 
week  for  many  months  she  sent  me  an  outline  of 
lessons,  and  while  I  tried  to  give  these  lessons  as 
she  directed,  I  began  to  be  interested  in  mathemati- 
cal truths  and  to  see  interest  in  knowing  the  rela- 
tion which  one  number  bears  to  another. 

The  lessons  contained  many  interesting  games 
which  I  enjoyed  developing  in  my  own  way  in 
teaching  Winifred.  These  and  many  other  games, 
and  the  philosophy  underlying  them,  are  contained 
in  a  book  which  Mrs.  Hornbrook  is  now  writing, 
entitled,  The  Happy  Learning  of  Mathematics. 

Teaching  Prime  and  Composite  Numbers.— 
The  sieve  of  Eratosthenes,  noted  Grecian  mathe- 
matician, who  lived  in  the  third  century  before 
Christ,  is  very  useful  in  teaching  children  about 
prime  and  composite  numbers.  I  have  had  a  num- 
ber of  these  sieves  printed,  and  give  them  to  chil- 
dren to  see  if  they  can  mark  out  all  composite  num- 
bers with  red  ink  and  then  count  the  primes  which 
are  left  standing.  Through  this  game  they  learn 
that  there  are  25  Mr.  Primes  in  100,  not  counting 
Mr.  One,  whose  standing  is  well-known,  since  he 
can  be  divided  only  by  himself.  All  other  prime 
members  of  the  prime  number  family  can  be  divided 
only  by  themselves  or  1,  while  the  composite  can 
be  divided  by  other  numbers.  They  are  more  com- 
mon, being  74  in  number. 

The  Game  of  Witch. — I  use  the  aforemen- 
tioned Hornbrook  chart  to  play  a  game  called 


126  MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

"Witch."  The  child  chooses  a  certain  number  and 
writes  it  on  a  piece  of  paper.  The  paper  is  folded 
and  put  beneath  a  plate.  The  number  he  has  chosen 
is  an  odd  or  even  number  in  a  certain  column.  Three 
chances  are  given  to  guess  this  number,  and  if  no 
one  guesses  aright,  the  chooser  may  select  another 
number.  If  the  number  is  guessed,  the  guesser  is 
allowed  to  select  a  number  to  be  guessed. 

Charts  to  Teach  Numbers. — In  teaching  very 
young  children  to  know  the  numbers,  I  employ  a 
large  chart  upon  which  I  mark  the  numbers  after  the 
Hornbrook  Chart  design.  In  the  first  column  I  use 
the  numbers  up  to  10.  In  second  column  up  to  20, 
etc.  In  a  box  I  place  numbers  cut  out  of  red  card- 
board or  the  small  wooden  blocks  which  come  with 
sets  of  Lotto  and  ask  the  young  student  to  find  the 
number  in  the  number  box  which  matches  with  the 
number  of  the  chart.  I  have  found  two-year-old 
children  who  could  match  all  of  the  numbers  after 
a  few  trials,  but  I  have  never  allowed  any  little  one 
to  continue  playing  this  game  more  than  ten  minutes 
at  a  time. 

Charts  to  Teach  Fractions  and  Decimals. — 
Similar  charts  may  be  used  to  show  children  some- 
thing of  fractions  and  decimals  by  cutting  the  chart 
into  strips  of  ten  each,  and  working  with  the  tenths 
until  children  understand  the  value  of  tenths.  Then 
cutting  the  tenths  into  halves  and  finally  reducing 
the  chart  into  one  hundred  squares.  Each  of  these 
squares  should  be  marked  with  a  number,  as  little 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION  127 

Two  right-angled  triangles  forming  one  square. 


A  square. 


'      Four  isoceles  triangles  in  one  square. 


One  hundred  little  fairies  making  a  square. 


Ten  soldiers  in  each  line. 

Ten  lines  of  soldiers,  making  one  hundred  In  all. 


j        A  square  with  one  hundred  baby  squares. 
Ten  divisions  and  ten  in  each  division. 


Made  by  Winifred  to  teach  young  pupils  in  natural  education 
classes  geometrical  figures 


128    MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

ones  delight  in  picking  out  the  numbers  and  laying 
them  on  the  table  so  as  to  form  a  new  chart. 

Teaching  Odd  and  Even  Numbers. — To  learn 
odd  and  even  numbers,  it  is  an  excellent  idea  to  play 
games  with  children  only  one  of  whom  is  without 
a  partner ;  or  to  use  paper  dolls,  pretending  that  the 
dollies  are  going  to  a  party.  Two  start  the  proces- 
sion. They  are  even.  Behind  them  comes  a  lonely 
maid  NUMBER  THREE,  who  is  odd,  but  when 
another  doll  marches  by  her  side  she  is  happy  and 
together  they  make  the  even  number  four.  Follow- 
ing this  same  idea  children  can  play  with  chairs  and 
dancing  games  and  thus  realize  the  difference  be- 
tween a  number  which  can  always  be  divided  by 
two  and  one  which  can  not  be  so  divided. 

Game  to  Learn  Odd  and  Even  Numbers. — 
Cut  out  small  squares  from  different  colored  card- 
boards and  print  odd  numbers  on  some  and  even 
on  others.  Make  an  imaginary  railroad  train  of 
pill  or  powder  boxes,  marking  odd  on  some  and 
even  on  others,  asking  the  children  to  put  all  odd 
in  car  box  marked  "Odd"  and  all  even  in  the  box 
marked  "even."  The  little  ones  think  this  great 
sport  and  learn  to  distinguish  odd  and  even  at  sight. 

The  same  game  may  be  played  with  an  imaginary 
fish  pond  formed  from  a  big  bowl.  Cut  a  num- 
ber of  fish  from  cardboard.  Mark  "Odd"  on  some 
and  "Even"  on  others.  Let  the  odd  fish  be  prize 
winners,  and  after  all  the  children  have  had  a  cer- 


^M 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION    129 

tain  number  of  turns  in  pretending  to  fish,  the  one 
who  has  the  most  fish  marked  "Odd"  wins  the  game. 
Teaching  Foreign  Currency. — Foreign  cur- 
rency may  be  learned  by  showing  children  coins  or 
making  cardboard  coins  and  telling  them  the  values 
as  compared  with  American  coins.  Games  can  be 
played  to  go  shopping  in  different  lands  where  the 
children  buy  toys,  dresses,  etc.,  and  pay  for  them  in 
French,  German  or  other  foreign  currency.  The 
following  table  will  help  to  keep  in  mind  the  value 
of  foreign  currency. 

(This  table  shows  the  approximate  values) 

The  Pound  Sterling  of  England $4.8665 

One  Penny 02 

One  Franc  of  France,  Belgium  and  Switz- 
erland   19 

One  Reichsmark  of  Germany 23 

One  Crown  of  Denmark,  Sweden  and  Nor- 
way   25 

One  Lira  of  Italy 18 

One  Peseta  of  Spain 12 

One  Florin  of  Austria 37 

One  Piaster  of  Turkey 01 

One  Dollar,  Mexican 35 

One  Ruble  of  Russia 48 

To  Learn  the  Value  of  Money. — In  order  that 
children  may  learn  the  value  of  money  let  them  play 


130    MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 


A  coin  tower 


with  real  coins  and  pretend  to  buy  and  sell  different 
articles.  Small  children  delight  in  tracing  designs 
with  different  coins,  and  often  I  let  little  ones  amuse 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION    131 

themselves  -by  drawing  a  coin  tower  like  the  accom- 
panying one.  Different  animals  and  many  other  de- 
signs may  be  made  with  these  coins  to  help  form 
outlines. 

Lack  of  Financial  Training. — Few  people  have 
financial  training  as  children,  and  that  is  why  we 
have  so  much  trouble  with  finances  as  we  grow 
older.  In  the  school,  children  are  made  to  work 
problem  after  problem  in  arithmetic,  rather  than  to 
learn  the  value  of  numbers  with  which  they  are 
working. 

There  are  women  who  grow  up  without  learning 
how  to  write  a  check  properly,  and  they  have  not 
the  faintest  idea  of  what  finances  in  the  broad  sense 
of  the  term  mean.  Not  knowing  the  value  of 
money,  many  sons  of  rich  men  throw  away  their 
health  and  happiness  in  foolish  and  riotous  living 
as  soon  as  they  inherit  their  parents'  wealth.  Many 
poor  people  will  spend  a  dollar  given  to  them  by 
charity  workers  for  some  foolish  bit  of  extrava- 
gance. 

Children  Taught  Use  of  Money. — If  children 
be  taught  the  use  of  money  and  the  difficulty  of 
earning  it,  they  will  realize  its  importance.  Encour- 
age little  ones  to  give  some  of  their  pennies  to  help 
poor  children,  and  to  put  others  in  the  bank  for 
a  rainy  day.  Teach  them  to  compute  interest  and 
they  will  find  delight  in  watching  the  growth  of 
their  nest  egg.  A  question  of  compound  interest 
proves  a  delight  to  children  if  they  have  money  in 


132    MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

the  bank,  but  a  child  who  has  no  money  can  not 
interest  himself  in  working  such  questions. 

Each  child  should  have  a  regular  allowance  given 
to  him  at  the  first  of  the  month.  And  although  his 
parents  should  cleverly  direct  him  into  proper  spend- 
ing paths,  he  should  be  made  to  feel  that  he  is  free 
to  spend  the  money  as  he  wishes,  and  to  use  his 
own  judgment  concerning  good  investments  for 
this  money. 

Teaching  Roman  Numbers. — It  is  easy  to 
teach  Roman  numbers  by  showing  the  clock,  and 
asking  little  ones  to  read  dates  on  buildings,  monu- 
ments and  even  tomb-stones.  A  visit  to  the  ceme- 
tery is  not  very  inspiring,  but  it  helps  to  impress  the 
meaning  of  certain  Roman  numbers  if  you  take  a 
few  walks  in  the  "city  of  the  dead"  and  show  the 
children  how  to  read  the  Roman  characters  on 
grave-stones. 

Lotto. — The  game  of  lotto  is  most  useful  in 
teaching  children  to  read  numbers  quickly.  These 
games  may  be  purchased  in  any  five-  and  ten-cent 
store. 

Dice. — Large  dice  furnish  the  groundwork  for 
many  games  to  teach  mere  babies  to  count.  Any 
child  enjoys  rattling  dice  in  a  box,  and  when  he 
is  taught  to  count  the  spots  on  each  side  and  to 
see  how  many  spots  are  on  the  side  he  throws  up- 
ward, he  finds  new  delight  in  these  useful  toys.  I 
had  the  pleasure  of  giving  little  two-year-old  Homer 
Hardesty,  of  Akron,  Ohio,  his  first  lesson  in  count- 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION    133 


ing  through  dice-throwing,  and  I  was  myself 
almost  intoxicated  with  delight,  while  the  baby 
screamed  with  joy  as  he  discovered  that  he  was 
learning  to  count.  I  showed  him  the  one-spot  on 
a  big  dice,  and  then  the  two-spot,  while  saying, 
"One,  two."  When  he  threw  "one"  he  would  point 

Game  With  Throwing  Large  Dice 


MOTHER 


WINIFRED 


10 

5 
6 
5 


16 


16 


14 


134    MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

with  his  chubby  fist  and  say,  "One,"  and  when  he 
was  lucky  to  throw  "two"  he  screamed  with  de- 
light. In  this  way  he  soon  learned  to  count  to 
twelve,  and  could  play  parcheesi  with  his  elder 
brothers.  This  game  is  excellent  to  teach  little  ones 
to  count,  and  it  may  be  made  more  exciting  by 
placing  small  ducks  or  animals  on  the  board  to  mark 
the  position  of  each  player. 

A  game  of  dice  which  delighted  Winifred  when 
she  was  small  was  throwing  dice  in  turn  and 
putting  down  under  columns  marked  "Mother"  on 
one  side  and  "Winifred"  on  the  other,  the  results 
of  our  throws.  We  began  with  but  two  dice,  and 
each  of  us  took  two  turns.  Thus  there  were  only 
two  figures  to  add  to  see  who  was  winner. 

Through  this  simple  game,  using  more  dice  as  we 
progressed,  and  adding  longer  columns  of  figures, 
we  have  both  gained  proficiency  in  adding  at  sight. 

Abacus. — In  the  learning  of  numbers,  as  Mrs. 
Hornbrook  has  so  ably  pointed  out,  our  chief  ob- 
ject is  to  get  clear  ideas  of  numbers  in  their  rela- 
tions to  one  another.  Some  of  the  ways  employed 
by  Mrs.  Hornbrook  to  teach  this  relationship  is 
through  an  abacus  with  ten  instead,  of  twelve  rows 
of  beads.  This  useful  instrument  has  been  em- 
ployed by  the  Chinese  and  Japanese  for  centuries  to 
help  in  their  counting,  and  all  children  delight  to 
move  the  beads  and  to  see  how  many  are  in  certain 
rows,  and  how  many  more  "four"  are  than  "two." 
Through  using  this  toy  (to  be  obtained  at  any  five- 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION    135 

and  ten-cent  store)  the  teacher  can  show  her  pupil 
plainly  that  "four"  is  just  twice  "two,"  and  that 
"ten"  is  two  times  "five."  She  can  teach  him  sim- 
ple truths  in  fractions,  showing  that  "three"  is  one- 
third  of  "nine"  and  "two"  one-fourth  of  "eight." 
She  can  show  him  how  to  add,  subtract,  multiply, 
divide,  and  by  playing  that  the  beads  are  different 
colored  fairies  the  child  will  find  great  delight  in 
thus  gaining  knowledge. 

Mathematics  in  Daily  Occupations. — I  believe 
in  striving  to  impress  children  with  the  relations  of 
one  quantity  to  another  by  allowing  them  to  count 
the  seeds  in  fruit,  leaves  on  branches,  pebbles  in  the 
sidewalk  and  other  objects  they  see  in  their  daily 
walks.  Let  them  take  a  certain  number  of  bites 
from  a  cake  or  an  apple  and  count  each  bite,  striving 
to  see  who  can  take  the  most  bites  out  of  one  piece 
of  fruit  or  bit  of  cake.  This  teaches  the  child  to  eat 
slowly  while  helping  him  to  learn  the  science  of 
quantity. 

Music  in  Mathematics. — Music  helps  in  all 
studies  and  the  simple  air  of  Yankee  Doodle  has 
helped  many  children  to  learn  their  tables.  We  sing 
our  tables  to  this  air  while  marching  around  the 
room  and  all  unconsciously  we  have  impressed  upon 
young  minds  the  relation  of  two  to  one  and  four 
to  two. 

Games  With  Toothpicks  and  Jackstraws. — 
Toothpicks  and  Jackstraws  are  invaluable  to  show 
relations  of  one  number  to  another  and  to  point  out 


136    MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

geometrical  figures  to  children.  In  Winifred's  class 
of  children  at  the  Pittsburgh  Shaw  Natural  Educa- 
tional School  she  would  dra\v  a  picture  of  a  triangle, 
square,  pentagon,  hexagon,  octagon,  decagon,  etc., 
and  ask  the  children  to  make  similar  figures  with 


. 


Drawn  by  Winifred  employing  the  hexagon 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION    137 

their  sticks.  The  children  were  taught  that  a  hexa- 
gon is  a  plain  six-sided  figure.  The  word  hexagon 
was  written  on  the  board  in  large  letters.  One  child 
then  wrote  it  on  the  typewriter,  and  the  other  chil- 
dren spelled  it. 

After  the  children  were  thoroughly  acquainted 
with  the  ordinary  hexagon  having  six  sides,  Wini- 
fred would  draw  many  pictures  illustrating  hexa- 


Drawn  by  Winifred  employing  the  pentagon 


138    MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

gon  houses,  shoes,  faces,  etc.,  and  the  children  found 
delight  in  seeing  who  could  make  the  most  hexagons 
of  different  form. 

At  other  times  the  little  ones  played  going  on  a 
hexagon,  pentagon,  etc.,  hunt.  They  would  go  all 
over  the  house  looking  for  these  shapes  in  carpets, 
curtains,  on  the  walls  and  in  pictures.  Thus  they 
became  familiar  with  geometrical  figures  which  are 
so  important  in  architectural  designs. 

Making  Cathedral  Windows. — Another  game, 
which  always  delights  children,  is  to  give  them  a 
number  of  squares,  triangles,  trapezoids,  rectangles, 
etc.,  which  have  been  cut  out  of  cardboard  of  differ- 
ent shades  and  let  them  try  to  make  cathedral  win- 
dows or  designs  for  carpets,  rugs,  etc.  When  any 
design  is  unusually  good  we  allow  the  child  to  paste 
it  on  cardboard  and  hang  it  in  the  schoolroom. 


CHAPTER  IX 

TEACHING    NATURAL    HISTORY    AND    BOTANY 

NO  OTHER  study  proves  such  a  source  of  de- 
light to  children  as  natural  history  taught 
in  the  natural  way.  Instead  of  telling  children  plain 
cold  facts  without  illustrations,  take  them  to  the  zoo 
or  to  a  museum  where  they  can  see  the  animals  and 
birds  about  which  they  are  studying.  Parents  who 
are  not  fortunate  to  live  where  they  can  have  access 
to  such  educational  institutions  must  fall  back  on 
illustrated  natural  histories. 

By  going  to  the  woods  children  may  learn  to 
know  the  bird  inhabitants  and  become  interested  in 
Mother  Nature's  feathered  children. 

Writing  Stories  about  Animals. — Instead  of 
giving  the  little  ones  aimless  subjects  upon  which 
to  write,  take  them  to  the  zoo,  describe  character- 
istics of  certain  animals,  then  ask  the  children  to 
write  stories  about  these  animals,  which,  after  being 
neatly  typewritten,  can  be  placed  in  each  child's 
scrap  book,  which  he  can  call  My  Book  and  may  be 
kept  as  a  souvenir  of  his  early  attempts  to  express 
thoughts  in  written  form. 

139 


140    MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

Children  Love  Animals. — Natural  tendencies 
lead  all  children  to  love  animals  and  insects.  Babies 
have  been  known  to  play  with  snakes  and  to  find 
delight  in  their  companionship.  Anything  that  is 
alive  and  moves  delights  his  babyship.  An  older 
person  may  scream  with  fear  at  the  sight  of  a  little 
mouse,  but  baby  will  coo  with  delight  as  he  watches 
the  rodent  in  action. 

Every  child  is  a  little  Hiawatha  eager  to  learn  the 
names  and  habits  of  his  animal  brothers.  Pets  in 
the  home  are  amusing  and  instructive,  while  through 
caring  for  these  helpless  creatures  children  learn  to 
have  a  sense  of  responsibility. 

One  of  my  young  friends,  Hugh  Worthington, 
son  of  Admiral  Worthington,  U.  S.  N.,  became  a 
naturalist  and  philosopher  before  the  age  of  four 
years,  through  caring  for  all  kinds  of  pets. 

A  canary  delights  the  baby  and  I  have  known  chil- 
dren under  a  year  of  age  to  find  great  delight  in 
watching  fish,  snails  and  other  amphibious  pets  in 
an  aquarium. 

A  dog  is  the  truest  friend  that  any  child  or  grown 
person  can  have,  and  a  dog  who  is  kept  clean  and 
guarded  from  infection,  even  as  the  baby  is  guarded, 
makes  an  ideal  companion  for  the  little  one. 

All  little  children  should  be  taught,  as  the  chil- 
dren in  Norway,  to  save  crumbs  from  the  table  and 
to  feed  the  birds,  especially  when  there  is  snow  on 
the  ground.  At  our  home  we  keep  a  small  shelf 
outside  the  kitchen  window,  and  each  morning 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION    141 

Winifred  places  bread-crumbs  for  her  wild  feath- 
ered friends.  They  are  learning  to  know  her  and 
on  several  occasions  have  perched  on  her  shoulder. 

Taught  to  Care  for  Birds. — Children  who  are 
taught  to  care  for  birds,  learn  to  love  these  beautiful 
creatures,  and  when  they  grow  to  the  adolescent 
(which  some  people  call  "the  devilish")  period  they 
have  no  desire  to  rob  the  mother  birds  of  their  nests, 
or  to  shoot  at  these  bird  friends. 

Botany  Fascinating  to  Little  Children. — Gain- 
ing facts  about  plants  is  a  fascinating  study  to  any 
child.  Botany,  as  taught  in  many  schools  and  semi- 
naries, leads  to  analyzing  backward  and  is  nothing 
but  drudgery.  Botany  is  one  of  the  liveliest  of  all 
sciences,  but  some  desiccated  professors — who  are 
as  sober  as  the  town  pump  and  as  domestic  as  the 
house  cat,  but  devoid  of  imagination  and  thrills  of 
delight  through  just  living — have  made  botany  a 
study  to  be  hated  by  nearly  all  high-school  girls  and 
boys. 

Jhrough  going  to  the  woods,  showing  children 
plants  and  trees  and  letting  them  see  the  different 
parts  of  flowers  beneath  a  magnify  ing-glass,  little 
four-year-old  children  can  gain  some  real  knowledge 
of  the  science  of  botany. 

Last  summer  I  was  amused  to  hear  a  sixteen- 
year-old  high-school  boy  talking  with  a  five-year- 
old  naturally  educated  lad.  The  high-school  boy 
asked  the  little  chap  what  they  should  do  to  amuse 
themselves  and  the  little  chap  said:  "Oh,  let's  go 


142  MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

botanizing."  "Great  Caesar,  no!"  said  the  larger 
boy.  "I've  just  been  through  botany  at  school  and 
I  never  want  to  hear  another  thing  about  analyzing 
flowers."  The  little  boy  was  greatly  surprised  to 
hear  the  larger  boy,  whom  he  considered  a  hero, 
showing  dislike  to  plants.  He  said  nothing,  but 
went  to  the  garden  and  pulled  several  flowers.  He 
brought  them  to  the  swing  where  the  wise  high- 
school  student  was  seated.  Then  he  began  to  talk 
about  the  lovely  calyx  and  still  prettier  corolla,  the 
strange-looking  pistil,  and  the  stamen,  until  the  high- 
school  boy  actually  became  interested  and  deigned 
to  examine  flowers  brought  to  him  for  his  inspec- 
tion. The  little  chap  had  showed  him  that  the  true 
science  of  botany  is  a  live  subject  and  not  a  dried-up 
one  covered  in  the  pages  of  scientific  books. 

Jingles  Helpful. — Jingles  may  be  made  that 
will  help  children  to  remember  facts  worth  knowing 
in  botany,  and  games  will  help  to  arouse  interest 
among  young  children. 

Encourage  children  to  write  short  stories  on  the 
typewriter  concerning  the  various  trees  they  see  in 
their  walks  or  about  which  you  have  told  them 
stories. 

The  following  description  of  magnolia  trees  was 
written  by  Winifred  when  she  was  eight  years  old: 

Story  of  the  Magnolia. — "Unlike  oak  trees, 
magnolias  will  grow  only  in  a  few  places,  chiefly 
in  the  subtropical  countries  of  Asia  and  the  eastern 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION    143 

part  of  North  America.  There  are  but  fifteen  dif- 
ferent branches  to  the  magnolia  family,  which  is  a 
small  number  compared  with  the  seventy-two  vari- 
eties of  the  oak.  The  magnolia,  however,  holds  the 
palm  for  being  even  more  beautiful  than  the  ma- 
jestic oak.  At  least  that  is  the  opinion  of  most 
people  concerning  the  large-flowered  magnolia, 
which  grows  from  sixty  to  one  hundred  feet  high 
and  from  two  to  three  feet  in  diameter.  It  has 
leaves  which  are  sometimes  twelve  inches  long  and 
four  inches  wide,  and  I  often  fasten  these  leaves 
together  with  bits  of  baby  ribbon  and  make  very 
pretty  fans, 

"The  flowers  are  large,  white  and  waxy.  They 
exhale  a  delightful  odor,  but  if  one  dares  to  touch 
the  heavenly  flower  with  his  sordid  hands  it  turns 
brown  and  ugly  just  at  the  touch.  This  is  also  true 
of  the  bay  flower  and  other  flowers  which  are  white 
and  waxy  in  appearance. 

"It  is  a  good  thing  that  the  wood  of  magnolia  trees 
does  not  make  good  lumber  or  fuel  because  lumber- 
men let  these  beautiful  trees  grow  and  cut  down 
other  trees  which  are  not  quite  so  beautiful,  but  yet 
have  stronger  wood. 

"One  member  of  the  magnolia  family  lives  in 
Japan.  It  differs  from  the  magnolias  in  this  part 
of  the  country,  as  it  has  purple  instead  of  white 
blossoms.  The  Chinese  use  the  flowers  of  mag- 
nolias which  grow  in  their  country  for  pickles,  while 


144    MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

they  use  the  buds  to  flavor  their  rice,  and  make  a 
lotion  out  of  the  seeds  which  doctors  prescribe  for 
inflamed  eyes. 

"Some  people  who  live  in  the  Allegheny  Moun- 
tains, where  the  pointed  leaved  magnolia  grows, 
gather  the  cones  and  steep  them  in  whisky  to  make 
medicine  for  prevention  of  chills;  the  bark,  seeds 
and  cones  of  the  magnolia  Glauca  are  used  to  make 
medicine  for  rheumatism.  Therefore  this  beautiful 
tree  can  not  be  accused  of  being  made  only  for  show, 
as  it  helps  people  even  as  less  handsome  trees  of  the 
forest  do." 


CHAPTER  X 

TEACHING   CORRECT  SPEECH 

HERBERT  SPENCER  said:  "Teach  a  child 
good  English  in  the  cradle  and  he  will  speak 
it  to  the  grave."  This  great  man  never  opened  a 
grammar  until  he  was  sixty  years  of  age,  and  then 
out  of  curiosity.  To  him,  grammar  was  the  eti- 
quette of  words,  and  as  the  late  Elbert  Hubbard  has 
aptly  said,  "The  man  who  does  not  know  how  prop- 
erly to  salute  his  grandmother  on  the  street  until  he 
has  consulted  a  book  is  always  so  troubled  about  his 
tenses  that  his  fancies  break  through  language  and 
escape.  Grammar  is  the  appendenda  veriformis  of 
pedagogics;  it  is  as  useless  as  the  letter  q  in  the 
alphabet,  or  as  the  proverbial  two  tails  to  a  cat." 

A  great  many  men  who  are  noted  for  their  liter- 
ary style  believe  that  an  extensive  study  of  gram- 
mar, as  grammar,  obliterates  individuality  and  we 
all  know  that  there  is  no  more  irksome  study  to  any 
child  than  plain  grammar  as  taught  by  rules,  pars- 
ing, diagraming,  etc. 

Judged  by  Language. — Parents  can  not  be  too 
careful  about  the  language  they  use  when  talking  to 
their  babies,  and  every  mother  who  wishes  to  give 

145 


146    MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

her  child  the  right  start  in  life  should  be  sure  that 
she  does  speak  good  English  before  the  child  is 
born.  We  are  all  judged  by  the  way  we  speak. 
Early  impressions  are  lasting  and  we  often  hear 
school-teachers  and  college  professors  lapse  into 
vulgarisms  learned  in  childhood. 

Rules  and  Diagrams  Do  Not  Teach  Correct 
Speaking. — Habits  bind  us  all  and  the  sponta- 
neous child  who  loves  to  run  and  to  play,  to  pour 
forth  its  ideas  in  fountains  of  speech  with  little 
thought  of  the  vehicles  which  convey  these  ideas, 
resents  being  forced  to  say  "I  have  seen"  when  he 
learned  to  say  "I  seen"  in  the  cradle. 

Some  children  go  to  school,  learn  all  rules  per- 
fectly, are  able  to  diagram  and  to  parse  difficult 
sentences  and  yet  say  "It  is  me,"  "Ain't  it  so?" 
"Every  one  likes  their  own  way;"  "I  have  saw;" 
"He  has  got,"  etc.  Their  grammars  have  taught 
them  that  seen  needs  an  auxiliary,  but  habit  clings 
to  the  plain  seen  learned  in  babyhood. 

There  are  a  number  of  simple  text-books  which 
show  correct  and  incorrect  forms  of  speech.  Par- 
ents should  study  these  and  aim  to  speak  good  Eng- 
lish in  giving  baby  his  first  talking  lessons. 

Use  of  a  Typewriter  to  Teach  English. — If  a 
child  has  learned  to  speak  English  incorrectly  I  have 
found  that  the  FAIRY  TYPEWRITER  is  one  of 
the  best  means  of  correcting  this  habit.  Let  us  take 
the  sentence  "I  seen  a  cat."  Tell  the  child  that 
"seen"  is  such  a  weak  verb  it  can  never  stand  alone 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION  147 

and  ask  him  to  write  the  correct  sentence,  "I  have 
seen  a  cat,"  ten  times  on  the  typewriter.  Then  let 
him  use  the  word  "seen"  with  other  verbs,  such  as 
"I  am  seen,  I  was  seen,  I  will  be  seen,"  etc. 

Another  help  is  to  read  good  English  aloud  and 
ask  the  child  why  the  author  used  certain  words  in 
certain  ways. 

If  a  child  persists  in  saying  "ain't"  after  you  have 
told  him  that  there  is  no  word  "ain't"  in  any  diction- 
ary, let  him  search  through  The  New  Standard, 
(which  you  can  truthfully  say  contains  all  English 
words)  and  see  if  he  can  find  this  "abomination." 

Show  Tommy  that  when  he  says,  "Mary  don't 
love  me,"  he  is  saying,  "Mary  do  not  love  me,"  which 
will  sound  so  ridiculous  to  him  that  he  will  strive 
not  to  use  don't  in  the  third  person  singular  again. 

Show  Elizabeth  that  the  verb  "to  be"  belongs  to 
a  class  of  verbs  called  "Intransitive,"  which  never 
have  an  object,  so  she  can  not  say,  "It  is  me." 

Tongue-slip  Chart. — We  use  a  "Tongue-slip 
Chart"  in  our  home  and  find  it  a  help  to  all  mem- 
bers of  the  Stoner  family.  We  divide  our  chart 
in  three  sections  marked,  "Daddy-Mother-Wini- 
fred," and  it  is  my  object  to  put  a  black  mark  be- 
neath Daddy's  or  Winifred's  name  each  time  that 
either  one  makes  a  mistake.  They  in  turn  are 
watching  for  my  mistakes  and  at  the  end  of  the 
week  the  one  who  has  the  fewest  black  marks  wins 
a  prize  which  must  be  contributed  by  the  losers. 
Jhe  one  who  has  the  greatest  number  of  marks  is 


148  MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

compelled  to  contribute  twice  as  much  toward  the 
prize  as  the  other  loser. 

Game  of  the  Wise  and  Foolish. — There  is  an 
excellent  little  book  called  Better  Say  which  has 
been  a  great  help  in  our  home  in  settling  disputes 
concerning  best  forms  of  speech.  With  the  help  of 
this  little  book  I  have  invented  a  game  called  "The 
Wise  and  the  Foolish."  On  one  side  of  the  room 
is  the  kingdom  of  Queen  Minerva,  where  wise  peo- 
ple dwell;  on  the  other  side  is  the  land  of  King 
Stultus,  where  foolish  and  slovenly  people  reside. 

Put  all  of  the  children  in  a  row.  Begin  with  any 
sentence  or  phrase.  Let  us  take  "Between  you 
and  I."  The  first  child  is  supposed  to  say  that  this 
belongs  to  the  Stultus  realm,  but  if  he  thinks  it  is 
a  Minerva  sentence  he  must  be  banished  to  Stultus. 
We  give  the  next  child  "I  done  it."  He  recognizes 
the  mistake  and  declares  that  the  sentence  belongs 
to  Stultus.  He  is  therefore  declared  wise  and  goes 
to  Minerva. 

After  all  of  the  children  have  been  assigned  to 
either  realm  they  exchange  places  as  they  make 
mistakes  or  give  correct  answers.  Sometimes  cor- 
rect sentences  are  given  and  sometimes  incorrect. 
The  children  are  supposed  to  be  on  the  qui  vive  and 
the  teacher  to  explain  why  certain  phrases  are  in- 
correct. At  the  end  of  the  game  either  Stultus  or 
Minerva  wins.  If  the  former  the  children  are  dis- 
appointed; if  the  latter  they  rejoice  and  call  them- 
selves "Wise  ladies  and  gentlemen." 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION    149 


SU3A 


8U3AOV 


8H3A 


9M3AQV 


9W3A 


150    MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

This  same  idea  can  be  carried  out  by  older  chil- 
dren in  making  note-books. 

The  Language  House. — This  is  a  game  which 
amuses  any  child  and  teaches  the  parts  of  speech. 
Draw  the  picture  of  a  house. 

Explain  that  the  large  foundation  stones  are 
nouns.  The  smaller  bricks  resting  on  the  stones  and 
which  may  be  used  as  the  stones  to  hold  up  the 
house,  are  pronouns.  The  pillars  supporting  the 
house  are  verbs.  What  lets  light  into  the  house? 
The  windows.  Adjectives  and  adverbs  give  light  in 
the  sentence.  Therefore  we  use  the  doors  and  win- 
dows as  adjectives  and  adverbs.  What  shows  rela- 
tion? The  one  gable  of  this  house  to  the  other.  We 
call  said  gables  prepositions.  The  shingles  on  the 
roof  are  joined  together  and  known  as  conjunctions. 
The  chimneys  act  as  interjections,  as  they  are  used 
to  let  the  smoke  out  of  said  house  and  we  people  use 
interjections  when  we  wish  to  give  vent  to  our  feel- 
ing 

The  LANGUAGE  HOUSE  may  be  used  as  a 
picture  puzzle  by  cutting  out  a  number  of  cardboard 
bits  the  shape  of  noun  foundation  stones,  verb  sup- 
porters, interjection  chimneys,  and  allowing  the 
child  to  build  a  house  for  himself.  Complete  lan- 
guage house  outfits  are  sold  by  the  Natural  Educa- 
tional Toy  Company. 


CHAPTER  XT 

TEACHING  HISTORY  AND  LITERATURE 

HISTORY  is  always  a  delightful  study  and  the 
least  difficult  to  make  interesting  to  children. 
When  the  children  are  very  young  they  may  be 
told  tales  from  histories  of  all  nations;  and  to 
make  these  stories  more  interesting,  the  mother 
should  act  the  incidents  of  the  stories  she  tells.  If 
there  is  but  one  child  in  a  family,  dolls  may  be 
substituted  for  other  characters,  and  I  suggest  that 
celluloid  or  rag  dolls  make  the  best  actors  because 
they  generally  survive  after  the  most  strenuous 
scenes.  If  there  are  not  enough  rag  or  celluloid 
dolls  to  take  the  various  parts,  paper  dolls  may  be 
used.  I  have  amused  Winifred  for  hours  by  cut- 
ting out  paper  images  to  represent  Sleipnir,  the 
eight-legged  steed  of  Odin;  Fenrer,  the  monster 
wolf;  Thor,  with  his  monstrous  hammer;  Hoder, 
God  of  Darkness  (cut  from  black  paper)  ;  Freya, 
on  whose  neck  we  would  hang  a  bead  necklace; 
Loki,  God  of  Fire  (cut  from  red  paper)  ;  Balder, 
the  Sun  God  (cut  from  yellow  paper )V 

Paper  Dolls  Help  in  Teaching  History. — On  a 
rainy  day  I  brought  happiness  to  my  little  girl  by  tell- 

151 


152    MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

ing  her  ancient  Roman,  Scandinavian,  or  Biblical 
stories ;  and  as  I  told  the  stories  I  intensified  her  in- 
terest by  making  the  characters.  These  paper  dolls 
were  not  made  and  thrown  away  after  one  game,  but 
kept  in  large  envelopes,  to  bring  out  on  stormy  days 
and  arrange  for  plays  concerning  these  ever  inter* 
esting  characters. 

Through  these  games,  qualities  of  the  imagina- 
tion were  developed.  Winifred  looked  upon  Fen- 
rer  as  a  real  wolf.  Sometimes  she  feared  that  the 
chains  which  I  crocheted  for  him  out  of  silkaline 
would  not  hold,  and  that  he  would  do  dreadful 
things,  like  his  namesake.  She  insisted  that  I  cro- 
chet very  strong  chains  for  him,  so  that  he  could 
not  cause  destruction  as  did  the  Fenrer  of  Odin's 
court. 

Through  these  games  the  child  became  perfectly 
familiar  with  characters  whose  names  are  so  often 
used  in  history  and  art,  and  concerning  whose  lives, 
legendary  or  actual,  something  must  be  known  if 
we  are  to  appreciate  art  and  understand  history. 
She  named  her  dolls  for  various  mythical,  Biblical, 
or  historical  characters,  and  talked  as  freely  of 
Apollo,  Balder,  and  Romulus,  Caesar,  Moses,  etc., 
as  she  did  of  Mother  Goose  characters.  This  knowl- 
edge helped  her  to  appreciate  many  great  works  of 
art  when  she  visited  museums  and  to  understand 
the  allusions  in  many  great  poems. 

Her  mind  was  trained  to  admire  the  classics  and 
to  be  interested  in  history  rather  than  in  fiction 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION    153 

without  a  purpose.  Reading  without  a  purpose  is 
but  idle  amusement,  and  that  is  why  so  many  of  us 
are  not  well  informed.  We  waste  years  and 
years  reading  light  trash  which  gives  us  no  thought, 
whereas  if  we  had  been  trained  in  infancy  to  learn 
what  to  read  we  would  find  greater  enjoyment  in 
our  reading,  save  ourselves  from  becoming  spec- 
tacled in  youth,  and  be  well-informed  beings. 

Having  awakened  a  thirst  for  facts  of  this  kind 
and  having  laid  a  platform  upon  which  Winifred 
could  build  up  interest  in  all  subjects  pertaining 
to  the  classics,  I  have  pointed  out  good  books  for 
the  child  to  read  and  have  thus  opened  avenues 
for  a  broader  education. 

Reading  for  a  Purpose. — At  the  present  time 
Winifred  keeps  a  yearly  book,  called  What  I  Have 
Read  (giving  the  year).  Each  year,  on  Janu- 
ary first,  she  starts  a  new  book,  and  in  it  she  puts 
the  subject,  author,  chief  characters,  principal  events 
described  and  thoughts  gleaned. 

At  the  end  of  1914  she  was  permitted  for  the 
first  time  to  see  the  old  year  out,  and  she  was  de- 
lighted to  compare  her  1914  reader  with  that  of 
1913.  These  books  will  be  a  fund  of  information 
to  her  in  years  to  come. 

Last  year  we  were  planning  to  give  lectures  in 
order  to  help  a  Japanese  friend  in  his  school  work. 
He  was  to  help  us  illustrate  our  talks.  We  read 
everything  we  could  find  on  Japan  so  as  to  become 
conversant  with  the  history,  customs,  etc.,  of  this 


154  MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

ever-interesting  country.  Through  this  year's  read- 
ing we  both  learned  so  much  about  Japan  that  we 
could  make  a  speech  on  the  subject  at  any  time,  and 
we  felt  as  if  we  understood  the  Japanese. 

This   year  we   are   striving  to    familiarize   our- 
selves with  everything  about  Germany,  and  we  keep 


EQUI- 
LATERAL 
MRIANGLE 


An    equilateral   triangle    has   all   sides   equal 
A  right-angled  triangle  contains  a  right  angle 


ISOSCELES 
TRIANGLE 


An   isoceles   triangle   has  two   equal   sides 
A  scalene  triangle  has  no  two  sides  equal 


A  square  is  a  quadrilateral  which  has  four  equal  sides,  four  right  an- 
gles and  two  right-angled  triangles. 

A  parallelogram  is  a  four-sided  figure  with  opposite  sides  equal  and 
parallel. 

Drawn  by  Winifred  to  teach  young  pupils  in  a  natural  education 
class  geometrical  figures. 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION  155 

our  eyes  open  for  information  concerning  this  coun- 
try in  all  our  reading. 

We  do  not  read  many  magazines,  but  keep  our- 
selves informed  on  current  events  through  the  Lit- 
erary Digest,  the  Independent  and  London  Public 
Opinion,  The  Ladies'  World  y  Mother's  Magazine, 
and  Child's  Welfare. 

Card  Games. — To  help  impress  historical  facts 
in  an  interesting  way,  I  give  some  of  my  historical 
games  in  the  Natural  Educational  Game  Book. 
Others  may  easily  be  made  that  will  prove  far  more 
interesting  to  the  maker.  I  have  used  Bible  games 
in  teaching  the  so-called  "worse  boys"  in  Sunday- 
school,  and  they  have  often  been  so  interested  that 
their  behavior  greatly  improved.  In  the  first  place, 
I  was  careful  to  offer  a  reward  to  the  lad  who  won 
the  game.  Then  I  designated  the  boys  as  both  teacher 
and  pupils,  guiding  them  without  their  knowledge. 
The  game  is  written  with  a  series  of  questions  cover- 
ing the  entire  Bible  history,  and  when  they  know  the 
game  they  know  the  Bible  as  a  story.  Being  a 
game  of  chance,  there  was  always  some  excitement 
in  it  to  keep  up  the  interest,  and  we  never  played 
long  enough  to  let  this  interest  flag.  Mothers  can 
try  this  with  the  history  of  the  whole  world,  not 
giving  too  many  dates,  but  picking  out  those  impor- 
tant facts  which  educated  people  are  supposed  to 
know. 

Plutarch's  Lives. — When  I  have  suggested  to 
some  parents  that  they  give  their  children  Plutarch's 


156    MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

Lives  to  read,  they  have  laughed  at  me.  The  idea 
seemed  so  absurd  that  little  ones  could  enjoy  any- 
thing written  by  a  philosopher  who  lived  hundreds 
of  years  ago.  But  Plutarch  was  a  true  master  of 
word  painting  and  knew  the  most  interesting  char- 
acteristics of  people.  He  wrote  over  a  hundred 
books  and,  as  some  great  writer  has  said,  "was 
never  dull." 

Plutarch's  Lives,  edited  by  John  S.  White,  will 
prove  interesting  and  instructive  to  all  children,  re- 
gardless of  age. 

His  stories  of  Theseus,  Romulus,  Lycurgus,  The- 
mistocles,  Camillus,  Pericles,  Demosthenes,  Cicero, 
Alcibiades,  Coriolanus,  Alexander  the  Great,  Ar- 
chimedes, Pompey,  etc.,  are  full  of  historical  facts 
and  interesting  truths  of  nature. 

English  History. — Tell  the  children  stories 
from  English  history  concerning  the  Landing  of 
Caesar  (55  B.  C),  Queen  Boadicea,  Caedmon,  the 
English  singer;  King  Alfred  the  Great,  William, 
Duke  of  Normandy,  who  conquered  England,  1066; 
Thomas  a  Becket,  Richard  the  First  and  the  crusades, 
the  hated  King  John,  Robert  Bruce,  Joan  of  Arc, 
the  invention  of  printing,  the  discovery  of  America, 
King  Henry  Eighth,  Queen  Mary,  Queen  Mary  of 
Scots,  Queen  Elizabeth,  Lady  Jane  Grey,  Shake- 
speare, King  Charles  First,  Oliver  Cromwell,  the 
story  of  the  plague,  the  great  fire,  the  story  of  Queen 
Victoria's  life. 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION  157 

Teaching  Facts  in  History  through  Jingles. — 
One  of  the  best  ways  to  teach  children  important 
facts  in  history  is  through  giving  them  these  facts 
in  jingle  form. 

Winifred  has  written  histories  of  nearly  all  the 
European  countries  in  jingles,  and  thus  fixed  in  her 
own  mind  dates  and  happenings  that  she  wished 
to  remember.  She  has  also  written  a  number  of 
jingles  about  the  history  of  the  United  States,  but 
recently  when  we  found  Ella  Wheeler  Wilcox's 
Historical  Mother  Goose  we  saw  that  these  jingles 
were  so  much  better  than  those  of  the  Stoner  variety 
and  we  decided  to  use  them  as  our  United  States 
history  memory  helpers. 

Teaching  Children  of  the  Lives  and  Works  of 
Great  People. — Teachers  and  parents  should  be- 
gin when  children  are  very  young  to  tell  them  some- 
thing about  the  lives  and  works  of  great  men  and 
women  through  stories  of  important  happenings  to 
these  thought  producers. 

When  Winifred  was  three  years  old  we  played 
many  games  with  paper  dolls  named  Shakespeare, 
Milton,  Byron,  etc.  I  would  recite  something  writ- 
ten by  these  great  men,  and  Winifred  would  pick 
out  the  proper  author  and  let  him  stand  on  a  small 
box,  which  she  used  as  a  rostrum,  while  I  talked. 
Then  we  would  both  talk  to  our  literary  character, 
Winifred  generally  asking  the  questions  and  I  try- 
ing to  answer.  After  a  time  the  child  became  so 


158    MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

familiar  with  the  poems,  which  I  quoted,  that  she 
would  pretend'  to  make  some  of  the  characters  talk, 
repeating  the  poems  herself. 

Each  time  that  we  played  with  these  character 
puppets  I  told  her  interesting  stories  about  their 
lives  and  showed  their  pictures  in  books.  Thus  she 
gained  quite  an  extensive  knowledge  of  the  world's 
great  writers  without  hard-work  study. 

Later  on  we  played  the  old-fashioned  game  of 
authors  and  a  game  which  was  written  along  plans 
of  my  Roman  History  Game. 

Having  become  interested  in  these  characters,  the 
child  was  eager  to  learn  more  about  their  lives  and 
their  works  and  has  added  to  her  knowledge  through 
reading  stories  of  biography  and  autobiography. 


CHAPTER  XII 

TEACHING  GEOGRAPHY 

THE  study  of  geography  may  be  made  as  fas- 
cinating as  fairy-lore  if  the  teacher  finds  inter- 
est in  this  study  and  brings  it  to  the  child's  door  as  a 
live  subject,  pertaining  to  his  every-day  life. 

First  Lessons  in  Sand. — My  little  girl  has  ac- 
quired her  knowledge  of  geography  by  playing  in 
the  sand,  by  playing  card  games,  by  traveling  and 
seeing  rivers,  mountains,  oceans,  deserts,  volcanoes, 
geysers,  glaciers,  etc. 

She  gained  her  first  insight  into  the  study  of 
geography  through  playing  in  the  sand.  First  we 
made  little  rivers  and  mountains,  while  I  explained 
the  meaning  of  a  river  and  a  mountain.  Often  we 
spent  happy  hours  making  villages  supposed  to  be 
cities  in  various  countries.  A  favorite  was  Amster- 
dam, in  Holland.  We  made  little  canals  and  tiny 
rustic  bridges  out  of  twigs  of  trees.  We  laid  out 
gardens  and  put  in  paper  tulips  of  various  shades 
and  many  other  flowers.  On  our  imaginary  canals 
we  launched  boats  made  out  of  stiff  paper  of  red 
and  blue  and  green  shades. 

159 


160    MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

Teaching  about  Holland. — The  Dutch,  as  we 
all  know,  are  very  fond  of  bright  colors,  and  Wini- 
fred had  Dutch  likings  when  she  was  a  baby.  There- 
fore, the  more  colored  boats  and  flowers,  the  better 
pleased  was  my  young  lady  with  her  village.  I 
made  windmills  of  paper  and  small  rainbow-colored 
houses.  I  dressed  a  number  of  small  celluloid 
dolls  (which  I  bought  at  the  ten-cent  store)  in 
gay  costumes,  wasting  a  lot  of  energy  putting  on  the 
aristocratic  number  of  sixteen  and  eighteen  petti- 
coats. We  pretended  that  our  Dutch  dolls  skated, 
danced  in  their  wooden  shoes,  scrubbed,  trimmed 
trees  in  various  designs,  milked  our  paper  cows, 
made  butter  and  cheese  and  painted  lovely  pictures. 
Through  playing  this  game  Wrinifred  became  per- 
fectly familiar  with  Holland  as  a  country  and  with 
its  inhabitants. 

We  did  not  make  a  Dutch  village  each  day  until 
Winifred  was  weary,  but  after  playing  that  we  were 
in  Holland  for  several  days  we  traveled  to  France  or 
to  Germany  and  made  French  or  German  villages. 
We  had  tiny  flags  to  represent  all  nations,  tiny  dolls, 
diminutive  china  images,  such  as  can  be  bought  as 
favors  in  most  stationery  stores,  toothpicks,  pebbles, 
shells,  navy  beans,  twigs  from  trees,  leaves,  paper 
flowers  and  other  small  objects  as  our  constructive 
material. 

After  becoming  interested  in  the  various  coun- 
tries, I  taught  W7inifred  to  draw  maps  by  wetting 
the  sand  and  smoothing  it  down  \vith  a  rolling- 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION    161 

pin.  We  drew  the  maps  witli  sharp-pointed  sticks, 
while  I  talked  about  the  chief  points  of  interest  con- 
cerning rivers,  lakes,  etc.,  which  we  were  drawing. 

Dissected  Maps. — Another  help  to  Winifred 
in  gaining  a  knowledge  of  the  shape  and  size  of 
various  continents  and  countries  has  been  the  put- 
ting together  of  dissected  maps.  Some  maps  are 
mere  puzzles,  not  having  the  shapes  of  states  or  of 
countries,  but  aiming  only  to  get  the  shape  of  a 
certain  continent  or  country  by  putting  a  number  of 
blocks  together.  This  game  is  of  no  use  in  giving 
instruction  and  sometimes  makes  children  nervous. 
In  selecting  a  dissected  map  of  the  United  States  be 
sure  to  see  that  the  pieces  represent  the  various 
states. 

Games  with  Maps. — An  interesting  way  to 
give  a  child  some  idea  of  the  various  countries  and 
their  situations  is  to  lay  a  large  map  on  a  big  table. 
Start  a  tiny  china  or  celluloid  man  on  a  voyage  and 
travel  with  him  as  he  crosses  oceans  in  paper  boats 
or  travels  in  paper  railroad  carriages  or  automobiles. 

Winifred  has  always  loved  to  take  these  map  trips ; 
and  when  she  was  a  wee  kiddie  she  enjoyed  also  the 
journeys  we  took  on  chairs  turned  upside  down. 
Sometimes  she  would  be  the  captain  and  we  would 
sail  around  the  world,  stopping  at  coaling  stations 
and  big  seaports.  Again,  she  was  the  conductor 
on  a  train  going  from  New  York  to  San  Francisco, 
or  from  Canada  to  Mexico,  or  some  other  long 
journey,  We  had  many  accidents  and  were  even 


162  MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

waylaid  by  robbers,  but  we  managed  always  to  get 
safely  back  home. 

Other  Games. — With  the  help  of  our  Fairy 
Plasticine  we  had  many  games  which  made  coun- 
tries of  distant  lands  seem  very  near  to  us. 

As  Winifred  grew  older  I  invented  a  curious 
question  game,  a  game  dealing  \vith  plain  geograph- 
ical facts,  a  game  concerning  all  of  the  people  of  the 
earth,  and  in  the  evenings  we  played  these  games 
with  her  father.  She  enjoyed  the  spirit  of  chance 
involved  in  these  games  and  she  learned  something 
worth  while  every  time  she  played  a  game. 

Esperanto. — Esperanto  was  a  great  help  in 
giving  us  geographical  knowledge,  as  we  corre- 
sponded with  children  in  many  foreign  lands  and 
asked  them  to  tell  us  interesting  facts  about  their 
countries  and  themselves. 

Jingles. — Jingles  and  acting  stories  told  in 
these  jingles  or  in  prose  tales  were  a  delight  in  our 
home,  and  I  find  that  nothing  gives  the  children  of 
our  Natural  Educational  Schools  more  pleasure  than 
these  geographical  jingles. 

Scrap  Books. — The  making  of  scrap  books 
with  pictures  of  different  cities  and  peoples  of  vari- 
ous countries  always  amuses  children  and  helps  the 
mother  or  teacher  to  give  useful  information.  Cut 
pictures  from  magazines,  old  books,  railroad  guide 
books,  etc.,  and  give  them  to  the  children  to  paste 
into  scrap  books.  Tell  interesting  stories  about  said 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION    163 

places  to  the  children  and  let  the  little  ones  write 
what  they  remember  beneath  the  pictures. 

These  pictures  may  be  used  also  by  children  for 
their  General  Information  Books  when  they  write 
a  report  of  what  they  have  learned  each  day. 

Walks. — Many  important  facts  concerning 
physical  geography  may  be  taught  by  taking  chil- 
dren for  walks  and  showing  them  rock,  soil,  waters, 
shells,  etc. 

When  we  lived  on  Puget  Sound,  in  Port  Town- 
send,  Washington,  Winifred  and  I  had  an  excellent 
opportunity  to  study  the  various  formations  of 
the  earth  and  water.  Along  the  sides  of  the  long 
flight  of  steep  steps  leading  from  our  home  to  the 
down-town  district  there  were  huge  rocks  covered 
with  soil,  flowers  and  grass  on  top,  but  showing  the 
different  stages  of  rock  decaying  and  forming  soil. 

One  morning,  when  taking  a  walk, I  told  Winifred 
to  pull  some  grass  from  the  top  of  the  rocks  and  to 
feel  the  dirt  around  its  roots.  She  rubbed  the  dirt 
in  her  hand  and  in  answer  to  my  question  as  to  how; 
it  felt,  she  replied :  "It  has  a  gritty  feeling." 

I  explained  that  all  of  this  dirt  was  once  solid 
rock,  as  she  could  see  below,  and  showed  to  her 
that  the  dirt  was  still  composed  of  tiny  grains 
of  rock  which  will  even  scratch  glass.  I  found  a 
bit  of  glass  and  allowed  her  to  rub  the  dirt  on  the 
glass  as  proof  of  my  statement;  and  then  I  showed 
her  deep  crevices  in  the  rock  that  had  been  made  by 


164  MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION. 

water,  the  other  great  rock  destroyer  who  assists 
plants  and  earthworms  in  making  rock  into  dirt. 

In  all  of  our  Natural  Educational  Schools,  teach- 
ers are  cautioned  not  to  say,  "Let  us  have  geography 
for  a  half-hour."  When  we  are  studying  geography 
we  learn  facts  in  history,  and  the  same  with  history. 
In  fact,  a  visitor  to  our  schools  could  not  tell,  upon 
entering  our  playroom,  just  what  we  were  studying. 
If  grown  people  were  told  that  they  must  sit  down 
and  study  geography  for  one-half  hour  and  not 
think  of  anything  but  geographical  facts  during  that 
half -hour  I  am  sure  that  they  would  not  enjoy  their 
study  period,  but  when  given  freedom  to  learn  inter- 
esting facts  culled  from  all  sciences  pertaining  to 
that  subject  there  is  nothing  more  interesting  than 
geography. 

Before  learning  facts  about  far  distant  lands  I 
urge  my  teachers  to  teach  children  about  their  na- 
tive towns,  to  take  them  for  walks,  show  them  the 
natural  bodies  of  land  and  water  and  point  out  all 
historical  buildings. 

Writing  Descriptions  of  What  They  Have 
Seen. — When  they  return  to  the  school  encour- 
age them  to  write  simple  descriptions  of  what  they 
have  seen  in  either  prose  or  jingle  form. 

There  is  no  better  way  to  gain  a  real  knowledge 
of  the  world  and  its  inhabitants  than  through  travel. 
Winifred  has  been  fortunate  in  having  the  advan- 
tages of  extensive  travel,  but  I  know  a  little  cripple 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION    165 

boy  who  has  never  been  out  of  the  four  walls  of  his 
bed  chamber,  and  yet,  through  Esperanto,  the  world 
has  been  brought  to  him,  and  in  imagination  he  trav- 
els to  every  known  land,  guided  by  descriptions 
written  to  him  by  his  friends  from  all  countries. 

Teaching  about  India. — A  number  of  Wini- 
fred's geographical  jingles  are  very  amusing  to  chil- 
dren and  help  parents  to  arouse  their  child's  inter- 
est in  various  lands.  A  jingle  to  teach  little  ones 
about  India  is  written  to  the  air  of  We  Won't  Go 
Home  Till  Morning. 

The  children  sing  while  dancing  round  in  a  ring : 

To  India  we  now  will  go  (three  times) 
To  see  a  monkey  show  (one  time)  ; 
To  India  we  now  will  go  (three  times)    • 
To  see  a  monkey  show  (one  time). 

In  our  schools  we  use  small  individual  globes, 
which  can  be  purchased  at  the  ten-cent  store,  in 
addition  to  a  large  globe.  I  first  show  the  children 
where  India  is  on  the  big  globe.  Then  I  give  each 
child  a  globe  and  he  shows  me  where  the  country  is 
situated.  I  show  the  children  that  it  will  be  impos- 
sible to  get  to  this  country  by  railroad  trains,  and 
so  we'll  have  to  sail. 

We  turn  some  chairs  upside  down,  put  up  an 
English  flag,  pretending  that  we  are  going  to  the 
land  of  which  England  is  master,  and  away  we  go 
while  singing: 


166    MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

We  can  not  travel  there  by  rail 
And  so  we'll  have  to  sail. 

Now  we  land  and  see  the  tallest  mountain  in  the 
world,  Mount  Everest,  which  we  learn  is  twenty- 
nine  thousand  and  two  feet  high,  more  than  five 
miles  in  the  air  and  about  the  distance  from  our 
home  to 

We  show  the  children  a  foot  measure,  tell  them 
the  story  about  this  measure's  origin.  Let  them 
measure  the  room,  or  several  rooms,  until  they  have 
measured  twenty  feet.  We  then  tell  them  that  a 
mile  is  five  thousand  two  hundred  and  eighty  feet 
long,  and  Mount  Everest  is  over  five  miles  in  the 
air.  This  gives  them  an  idea  of  its  height.  Tell 
them  about  Mount  Blanc,  but  explain  what  a  stubby 
fellow  this  great  king  is  compared  with  the  taller 
Mount  Everest.  Then  teach  them  the  following 
lines  and  have  them  bend  the  knee  to  some  imagi- 
nary mountain  : 

And  there  Mount  Everest  we'll  see 
And  lowly  bend  the  knee. 

These  three  verses  will  be  enough  to  give  to  any 
child  for  one  lesson,  but  I  shall  give  several  verses 
and  explanations  of  same,  so  as  to  show  mothers 
and  teachers  how  interesting  these  jingle  geography 
lessons  may  be  made. 

Explain  to  the  children  that  India  is  very  hot.    It 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION    167 


two  squares 


four  squares 


two  rectangles 
in  one  square 


four  squares 


two  rectangles 
in  one  square 


four  square  made     g 
from  one 


three  squares 


two  squares 
Made  by  Winifred  to  teach  young  pupils  about  geometric  figures 


168    MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

is  a  tropical  country  with  jungles  rilled  with  huge 
wild  beasts  and  poisonous  snakes.     Then  sing: 

In  India  the  sun's  so  hot 
iVVe  may  melt  on  the  spot. 

While  singing  these  lines  the  children  may  shade 
their  eyes  as  if  from  the  burning  sun. 

And  when  it  rains  great  torrents  fall 
To  soak  the  great  and  small. 

Gestures  indicating  the  falling  of  rain  make  these 
lines  more  interesting. 

In  India  we'll  have  a  fright 
If  cobras  try  to  bite. 

Or  even  worse,  a  crocodile 
May  come  too  close  and  smile. 

If  we  escape  his  awful  jaws 
We  may  feel  leopards'  claws. 

Let  some  of  the  children  represent  the  cobra,  croc- 
odile and  leopard  while  the  other  children  try  to  get 
away  from  them.  Show  pictures  of  these  animals 
and  tell  something  of  their  habits. 

For  the  next  day's  lesson  tell  the  little  ones  the 
story  of  the  Juggernaut  and  explain  about  the  differ- 
ent religions  in  India,  where  mothers  once  thought 
that  it  was  their  duty  to  throw  their  babies  into  the 
Ganges  River  to  be  eaten  by  crocodiles,  and  where 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION    169 

many  little  girls  were  widows  and  treated  most 
cruelly  because  they  were  blamed  for  the  death  of 
their  baby  husbands.  Tell  how  the  English  con- 
quered this  country  and  did  away  with  many  cruel 
customs,  but  have  not  as  yet  succeeded  in  persuad- 
ing people  that  it  is  foolish  and  unhealthy  to  drink 
the  water  of  the  River  Ganges  and  to  look  upon  it 
as  a  precious  liquid  when  it  is  in  reality  filthy  water. 
After  showing  pictures  of  the  Juggernaut  and 
scenes  in  India,  let  the  children  sing  the  following 
verses : 

But  I  am  glad  as  I  can  be 
No  Juggernaut  we'll  see. 

And  no  harm  will  come  our  way 
If  fairies  with  us  stay. 

We  have  now  learned  that  India  is  so  situated  that 
we  must  reach  this  land  by  way  of  a  water  route. 
We  know  that  the  climate  is  hot  and  that  there  are 
great  downfalls  of  rain.  We  have  learned  that 
monkeys,  crocodiles,  fierce  snakes  and  tigers  live  in 
this  country,  which  has  the  highest  mountain  in  the 
world,  Mount  Everest.  Now  we  must  learn  some- 
thing about  the  cities  of  India,  the  wonderful  things 
to  be  seen  in  this  land  and  something  about  its 
products. 

Then  we  sing : 

Agra,  Calcutta,  old  Delhi, 
And  Bombay  we  will  see. 


170  MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

But  I'm  so  sad  we  can't  behold 
^The  peacock  throne  of  gold. 

Still  we  may  see  the  Taj  Mahal 
Called  beautiful  by  all. 

Explain  to  the  children  how  Delhi  was  once  the 
most  famous  of  all  cities  in  India,  and  there  in  the 
long,  long  ago  was  a  wondrous  peacock  throne  cov- 
ered with  all  sorts  of  precious  stones  and  worth  as 
much  money  as  Mr.  Rockefeller  owns.  A  warrior 
from  another  city  came  and  conquered  this  city  so 
that  he  might  have  the  precious  throne.  He  sold  the 
jewels  to  those  who  would  pay  large  sums  for  them 
and  thus  destroyed  the  beauty  of  this  great  throne. 

Tell  the  little  ones  about  Taj  Mahal,  in  the  city  of 
Agra.  Explain  that  this  is  called  the  most  beautiful 
tomb  in  the  whole  world  and  it  was  built  as  a  loving 
remembrance  to  a  sweet  Hindu  lady,  the  wife  of  a 
great  Mogul  named  Shah  Jehan,  who  is  buried  by 
her  side. 

Now,  show  the  children  samples  of  cotton,  indigo, 
tobacco,  tea,  ebony,  sandalwood,  bamboo,  mahogany, 
silk,  copper,  tin  and  lead. 

Then  sing: 

Indigo,  cotton,  tobacco  and  tea 
In  India  we'll  see. 

We'll  find  in  Burma  rubies  red 
And  copper,  tin  and  lead. 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION  171 

Mahogany  and  teakwood,  too, 
And  plenty  of  bamboo. 

With  ebony  and  sandalwood 
And  other  trees  as  good. 

And  here  we  find  the  humped  zebu 
.Which  makes  a  funny  moo. 

If  there  be  a  zoo  in  your  neighborhood  take  the 
children  to  this  educational  institution  and  show 
them  a  zebu,  once  considered  sacred  in  India.  Ex- 
plain to  them  that  foolish  people  in  the  long  ago 
worshiped  cats  in  Egypt,  elephants  in  Siam  and  stu- 
pid cud-chewing  cows  in  India. 

For  another  lesson  on  India  sing  the  following 
verses : 

And  in  this  pearl  of  the  far  East 
On  mangoes  we  will  feast. 

And  lots  of  sugar  we  will  eat, 
Our  rice  we'll  make  so  sweet. 

And  lovely  silken  robes  we'll  wear. 
With  turbans  round  our  hair. 

But  in  the  Ganges  we'll  not  wasK, 
For  that  is  silly  bosh. 


72    MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATIO] 

Instead  we'll  take  an  elephant  ride 
Upon  his  trunk  astride. 

Tell  the  children  about  the  Durbar,  and  let  them 
arrange  a  number  of  chairs  with  coverings  over 
them  and  pretend  that  they  are  having  a  Durbar  and 
riding  in  a  glorious  procession. 

Spelling  India. — On  the  following  day  teach 
them  to  write  the  word  India  on  the  typewriter 
so  that  they  will  all  know  how  to  spell  the  name  of 
the  country,  which  interests  them.  Then  let  them 
form  the  word  India  with  their  anagrams  or  jack- 
straws,  trace  it  in  the  sand  and  write  it  in  printing 
and  script  form.  They  will  never  forget  how  to  spell 
the  word,  neither  will  they  forget  the  chief  points 
of  interest  concerning  this  country,  and  they  can  all 
find  it  on  the  map. 

Story  of  "Black  Quibba."— Read  to  them  the 
story  of  Little  Black  Quibba ,  by  Helen  Banner- 
man.  This  story  is  most  amusingly  illustrated,  show- 
ing a  mango  tree,  a  big  snake  and  an  elephant.  A 
moral  is  taught  in  this  story,  as  little  Quibba  wrent 
to  seek  for  mangoes  and  endured  all  sorts  of  hard- 
ships, not  to  get  something  for  himself,  but  to  pro- 
vide medicine  for  his  mother.  The  story  has  a 
happy  ending,  which  all  stories  for  children  should 
have,  and  the  little  ones  feel  almost  as  happy  as  the 
imaginary  Quibba  and  his  mother,  who  danced  for 
joy. 

For  a  reading  and  spelling  lesson  give  this  book 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION    173 

to  very  small  children  and  let  them  copy  the  text 
so  that  they  will  become  perfectly  familiar  with  all 
words  used  in  the  story. 

While  studying  about  India  read  stories  from 
Kipling's  Jungle  Books  and  The  Jatakas  Tales  of 
India. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

TEACHING    MUSIC 

THE  man  or  woman  who  reaches  the  age  of 
twenty-one  without  having  learned  to  appreci- 
ate the  sweet  sounds  to  be  heard  in  the  sighing  of 
the  breeze  and  song  of  rivulet,  as  well  as  in  the 
songs  of  birds  and  of  men,  is  indeed  to  be  pitied.  In 
most  cases  he  can  attribute  his  lack  of  musical  sense 
to  lack  of  training  in  early  childhood.  He  did  not 
hear  music  when  he  was  a  baby,  and  he  grew  to  man- 
hood with  no  appreciation  of  beauty  of  tone. 

Mistake  to  Force  Children  to  Practise. — Some 
children  have  been  driven  to  hate  music  through  the 
way  in  which  they  were  given  lessons  and  made  to 
practise.  A  famous  authoress,  in  writing  to  me  re- 
cently, said :  "I  certainly  agree  w7ith  you  concern- 
ing your  opinions  expressed  in  Natural  Education 
against  driving  children  to  practise  exercises  on  any 
instrument.  As  a  child,  my  mother  made  me  play 
two  hours  each  day  on  a  rickety  spinet,  whose  sound 
almost  drove  me  frantic  and  whose  strings  had  a 
fashion  of  breaking  with  such  force  that  I  feared 
one  would  strike  and  hurt  me.  Each  day  my  mother 
sat  over  me  as  a  taskmaster  and  compelled  me  to 

174 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION    175 

play  exercises  for  a  certain  number  of  times,  and 
the  bitterness  I  felt  toward  her  for  this  action 
estranged  me  so  that  I  did  not  love  her  as  a  daugh- 
ter should  love  her  mother  through  life." 

Use  "Pieces"  Instead  of  Exercises. — The  old1 
fogy  idea  that  children  must  practise  nothing  but 
hideous-sounding  exercises  for  two  or  three  years 
before  "getting  a  piece"  has  deserted  the  mind  of 
the  modern  music  teacher.  He  sees  that  beautiful 
melodies  may  be  used  as  pleasing  exercises.  He  is 
awakened  to  the  truth  that  the  study  of  the  piano 
may  be  made  most  fascinating  by  teaching  the  child 
musical  games  and  by  telling  him  stories  about  the 
notes  as  if  they  were  fairies. 

Victrola  and  Sonora. — In  an  introductory  chap- 
ter I  have  told  of  the  use  of  the  Victrola,  Sonora, 
and  various  wind  instruments  in  the  nursery.  These 
instruments  may  continue  a  delight  to  children  of 
all  ages,  and  the  mother  should  encourage  a  love 
of  music  by  singing  songs  and  playing  games  for  a 
few  minutes  each  day  with  her  little  ones. 

Teach  about  Piano. — One  reason  that  chil- 
dren do  not  love  a  piano  is  because  they  are  con- 
stantly told  to  keep  their  hands  off  of  it  and  they 
know  nothing  about  its  mechanism.  Lift  the  piano 
lid  and  show  them  the  wires,  some  of  which  -are 
long  and  thick  and  others  short  and  thin.  Show 
them  how  the  long  thick  wires  are  at  one  end  and  the 
little  thin  baby  wires  at  the  other.  Show  how  the 
hammers  act  when  the  keys  are  struck  and  what 


176    MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

kind  of  a  sound  is  made  when  the  hammer  hits  the 
long  thick  wire  or  short  thin  wire. 

Play  the  game  of  three  bears  by  showing  the  low 
full  sound  representing  Papa  Bear's  voice,  the  mid- 
dle length  tone,  Mama  Bear's,  and  the  high  thin 
sound,  Baby  Bear's. 

Explain  the  use  of  the  sounding-board  back  of 
the  wires,  which  helps  to  send  the  sound  all  over 
the  room  just  as  a  reflector  behind  the  light  of  an 
automobile  lamp  throws  out  broad  rays  of  light. 

Show  the  children  the  felt-covered  hammers  and 
let  them  see  how  by  touching  the  ivory  keys  on  the 
keyboard  the  hammers  move  and  cause  the  strings 
to  vibrate.  These  wires  vibrate  or  move  to  and 
fro  over  a  certain  point  of  rest — some  fast,  some 
slow.  Low  C  vibrates  only  thirty-two  times  in  a 
second  and  our  highest  C  four  thousand  ninety-six 
times. 

Young  children  should  not  sit  at  the  piano  upon 
stools  so  that  their  legs  dangle.  They  should  rest 
their  feet  upon  a  footstool  and  have  an  extension 
of  wood  fastened  to  the  pedals  so  that  their  feet 
touch  the  pedals  without  difficulty.  Let  the  children 
examine  the  pedals  and  learn  that  the  left  one  is  a 
lever  which,  when  pressed,  softens  the  tone  by  re- 
ducing the  number  of  strings  struck  by  hammers, 
and  the  right  lifts  the  dampers  and  gives  us  a  full 
sound. 

Mothers  Playing  for  Children. — Children  as 
well  as  animals  are  rhythmic  by  nature,  and  before 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

a  baby  has  been  taught  to  play  on  any  instrument 
the  mother  should  instil  a  love  of  rhythm  by  play- 
ing lively  musical  airs  and  telling  him  to  act  just  as 
the  music  speaks.  Some  children  will  respond  at 
once,  moving  their  bodies  in  perfect  rhythm  to  the 
music,  now  fast,  now  slow,  now  with  spirit,  now 
quietly.  Others  require  training,  but  with  a  little 
practise  all  will  learn  something  of  the  grace  of 
motion  and  beauty  of  sound. 

Cat  in  the  Corner. — Musical  "Cat  in  the  Cor- 
ner" was  a  favorite  game  with  Winifred  when  she 
was  a  baby.  I  would  strike  G  below  natural  C 
and  call  it  "Papa  Bear,"  first  D  above  middle  C, 
"Mama  Bear";  A,  "Sister  Bear";  E,  "Baby  Bear." 

Each  note  was  represented  by  one  of  the  four  cor- 
ners of  the  room  and  as  I  struck  one  of  these  notes 
the  little  girl  would  run  to  the  corner  designated. 
Through  this  game  I  have  discovered  several  chil- 
dren with  a  real  talent  for  music  whose  mothers  did 
not  realize  that  nature  had  given  them  this  rare 
gift.  A  short  time  ago  I  received  a  letter  from  a 
lady  whose  little  boy,  while  at  a  natural  educational 
demonstration  given  in  Cleveland  last  winter, 
showed  such  a  keen  tone  sense  that  I  persuaded  her 
to  let  him  take  violin  lessons.  She  writes  that  the 
boy  has  made  greater  progress  in  a  few  months  than 
most  pupils  make  in  a  year,  and  she  is  encouraged  to 
believe  that  he  will  be  a  musician  of  note. 

No  One  Method. — In  teaching1  children  to 
play  on  the  piano,  no  one  method  can  be  applied  to 


178  MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

all.  Children  are  of  different  temperaments,  and 
we  can  not  expect  to  get  exactly  the  same  results 
with  Johnnie  that  we  do  with  Mary.  The  great 
Leschetiszky  and  other  composers  have  often  said, 
"I  have  no  method." 

Through  the  Ear. — Some  people  think  that 
music  is  a  mysterious  art  to  be  learned  through  eye 
training.  They  forget  that 

"There's  music  in  the  sighing  of  the  reed, 
There's  music  in  the  gushing  of  a  rill; 
There's  music  in  all  things  if  men  had  ears-^ 
The  earth  is  but  an  echo  of  the  spheres." 

— Byron  in  Don  Juan. 

Expression  in  Harmonies. — There  is  music  in 
all  forms  of  life,  but  we  must  listen  to  hear  it.  Some 
music  teachers  are  so  immersed  in  what  they  call 
"technique"  and  so  afraid  of  a  child  "playing  by 
air"  that  they  give  him  nothing  but  unmusical  exer- 
cises and  tell  him  to  practise  them  for  several  hours 
each  day  and  not  to  dare  to  try  to  get  any  airs  out 
of  the  piano.  No  wonder  that  we  have  so  many 
mechanical  piano  players  who  can  not  play  the  sim- 
plest melody  without  their  notes.  Rather  let  the 
child  neglect  the  so-called  "technique"  and  express 
his  thoughts  in  simple  harmonies. 

To  encourage  children  in  expressing  these  har- 
monies let  them  hear  music  of  the  great  composers 
which  is  full  of  sense  stimulus.  Professor  Mary  B. 
Ehrmann,  in  a  recent  number  of  The  Mother's  Mag« 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION    179 

azine,  suggests  the  following  composers  for  this  de- 
velopment of  sense  impression:  Wagner,  in  whose 
music  we  hear  the  sound  of  Siegfried's  hammer  and 
see  the  evening  star ;  Gounod  helps  us  to  smell  flow- 
ers in  the  garden;  Lehman's  music  interprets  for 
us  the  song  of  the  cuckoo  and  the  wren ;  Gottschalk 
calls  to  our  minds  the  colors  of  a  beautiful  sunset 
in  his  Softly  Now  the  Light  of  Day;  Greig  helps 
us  to  hear  the  dancing  feet  of  elves,  as  we  listen  to 
his  In  the  Hall  of  the  Mountain  King. 

How  Music  Helps. — Music  can  be  used  also  to 
fight  pain  and  discontent.  When  Mad  Anthony 
Wayne  had  to  have  one  of  his  legs  amputated  he 
commanded  that  two  soldiers  play  the  drum  and 
fife.  ^Esculapius,  the  Greek  physician,  claimed  to 
restore  health  through  letting  sick  men  hear  "sweet 
harmony  and  concert  of  voices,"  and  often  when  a 
child  is  nervous  and  irritable  his  nerves  can  be 
calmed  and  he  can  be  made  comfortable  and  happy 
through  hearing  sweet  music. 

Verdi  and  other  great  musicians  are  said  to  have  ' 
cured  the  pangs  of  hunger  through  the  Music  Fairy. 
This  same  fairy  has  been  known  to  calm  savages 
and,  as  Doctor  Hirshberg  says,  "restrain  the  roar- 
ing lion  and  the  ravening  wolf.  Its  silver,  snarling 
trumpets  have  changed  cowards  into  dashing  he- 
roes." 

Now  it  is  claimed  that  music  affects  the  flow  of 
the  thyroid  glands,  and  thus  has  a  most  important 
effect  upon  a  man's  general  condition.  This  theory 


180    MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

has  not  been  proved,  but  from  experiments  I  know 
that  babies  cry  less  in  homes  where  there  is  music 
than  in  homes  where  this  fairy  is  not  heard. 

Mothers  should  always  speak  in  gentle  voices 
when  addressing  their  children,  as  there  is  music 
or  discord  in  the  voice,  and  babies'  ears  are  sensi- 
tive to  harsh  sounds.  Let  us  all  use  our  "smiling 
voices."  And  if  mothers  want  to  have  good  happy 
babies  with  bodies  attuned  to  the  sweet  sounds  of  the 
spheres  they  should  certainly  introduce  some  kind  of 
music  into  the  home  to  be  heard  by  the  baby  in  his 
cradle  days. 

First  Hear  Sounds. — The  love  of  music  must 
be  instilled  into  the  soul.  It  is  not  a  system  of  notes 
and  certain  times.  It  is  ridiculous  to  imagine  that 
we  can  make  a  child  understand  music  through 
teaching  him  to  read  musical  characters.  All  music 
must  reach  him  first  through  the  ear,  not  the  eye; 
and  yet  we  begin  his  training  by  showing  him  cer- 
tain characters  and  telling  him  that  they  represent 
certain  places  on  the  piano  and  must  be  struck  in  a 
certain  way.  First  let  him  learn  the  joy  of  hearing 
sweet  sounds  before  he  is  introduced  into  the  means 
of  producing  them. 

And  as  Winifred  has  said  in  a  little  jingle  writ- 
ten for  her  music  teacher,  Miss  Matilda  Orr  Hays, 
of  Pittsburgh,  Pa. : 

Where  is  Nature's  music  heard  ? 
In  hum  of  insect,  song  of  bird, 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION    181 

In  wailing  of  the  wind  at  night, 
In  splashing  of  the  wavelets  bright, 
In  angry  howls  when  breakers  roar 
Against  the  rocks  upon  the  shore. 

'Tis  in  the  Storm  God's  tearful  moan; 
In  human  voices,  every  tone. 
When  Jupiter's  loud  thunder  rolls 
Tis  Nature's  music  bell  that  tolls. 
But  only  those  with  perfect  ear 
True  sound  of  Nature's  music  hear. 

Let  Nature  Help. — Take  your  little  ones  to 
the  woods  or  sit  with  them  beside  a  running  brook. 
Tell  them  stories  of  the  fairy  breezes  and  water 
sprites.  Ask  them  to  be,  oh,  so  quiet  and  listen  if 
they  can  hear  Mother  West  Wind  and  her  little 
breezes  calling,  or  if  they  can  detect  the  silver  note 
of  Triton  calling  to  his  nymphs. 

In  the  evening,  call  their  attention  to  the  song  of 
the  cricket,  the  gentle  murmur  of  the  night  wind, 
and  the  song  of  the  sea,  and  the  fairy  whispers  in  a 
sea-shell.  Teach  your  child  to  distinguish  the  dif- 
ferent notes  of  different  birds,  open  the  door  of 
his  ear  to  the  great  throb  of  music  which  pulsates 
throughout  the  earth. 

Often  on  a  warm  afternoon  when  Winifred  re- 
belled against  taking  a  nap  I  have  put  her  in  a  ham- 
mock beneath  a  shady  tree  and  she  and  I  would 


182     MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 


5/.o  SQUARE'S 


ri  1 1 1 1 1  it 


VioOFA  SQUARE 


fet*fytWlrl| 

*/eOFA  SQUARE 


8/10  of  a  square 
Made  by  Winifred  to  teach  her  pupils  geometrical  figures  and  fractions 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION    183 

listen  for  sweet  music  notes  until  the  lullabies  of 
drowsy  little  breezes  or  the  hum  of  insects  had  sent 
the  rebellious  kiddie  to  the  peaceful  land  where  she 
could  rest  and  gain  strength. 

Communing  with  nature  has  been  a  great  help 
to  me  in  training  Winifred's  rhythmic  sense  and 
has  instilled  into  her  a  love  of  true  poesy  as  well 
as  of  music. 

Lives  of  Masters  in  Jingles. — I  believe  in 
teaching  young  children  to  revere  great  musicians, 
as  well  as  other  great  masters,  and  while  Winifred 
was  very  young  I  told  her  the  lives  of  the  old  mas- 
ters. Last  summer  she  spent  much  of  her  time  in 
reading  about  all  great  musicians,  and  in  order  to 
remember  the  most  important  facts  concerning  them 
she  has  written  their  lives  in  jingles.  These  jingles 
have  been  published  in  her  book,  Facts  in  Jingles. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

IMPORTANCE   OF   THE   STUDY   OF   LATIN 

J\S  Latin  is  a  good  basis  for  the  study  of  lan- 
JL\.  guage  in  general,  we  should  all  have  some 
knowledge  of  the  Roman's  tongue.  If  this  knowl- 
edge be  given  to  children  when  they  are  very  young 
they  can  make  practical  use  of  it  through  life.  A 
knowledge  of  Latin  grammar  helps  us  to  learn  Eng- 
lish grammar  and  makes  the  English  language  more 
intelligible,  since  we  are  constantly  meeting  with 
Latin  expressions  concerning  whose  meaning  we 
can  not  afford  to  be  in  the  dark. 

Relation  of  Latin  to  Practical  Life. — A  most 
interesting  book  on  The  Relation  of  Latin  to  Prac- 
tical Life  has  been  written  recently  by  Frances 
Ellis  Sabin  and  Laura  B.  Woodruff,  in  which  the 
authors  tell  us  how  Latin  helps  us  to  see  the  real 
meaning  of  our  English  words,  while  giving  us  the 
roots  of  the  romance  tongues — French,  Italian, 
Spanish,  Portuguese  and  Roumanian.  A  number  of 
English  words  are  given  and  with  them  the  Latin 
derivative.  Examples : 

Carbuncle  comes  from  the  Latin  word  carbo, 
which  means  a  live  coal. 

184 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION    185 

Secretary  is  derived  from  secretarius,  meaning  a 
keeper  of  seer  eta,  or  secrets. 

Trivial  comes  from  trivialis,  which  means  be- 
longing to  the  cross-roads — Tres  via — or  public 
streets ;  hence,  commonplace,  trifling. 

Most  interesting  information  concerning  the  num- 
ber of  Latin  words  used  in  describing  our  bodies  is 
given  in  this  excellent  book.  We  are  told  that  out 
of  the  two  hundred  six  bones  in  the  human  body, 
two  hundred  have  Latin  or  Greek  names;  that  we 
can  not  sneeze  without  using  fifty-five  pairs  of  mus- 
cles with  Latin  or  Greek  names,  and  that  our  laugh- 
ing and  weeping  muscles  have  Latin  names. 

In  the  study  of  zoology  we  must  have  some 
knowledge  of  this  tongue,  since  the  scientific  names 
of  all  animals  are  either  Latin  or  Greek.  Examples : 
equus  (horse),  felis  (cat),  cams  (dog),  mus 
(mouse),  vulpes  (fox),  lepus  (rabbit),  leo  (lion), 
tigris  (tiger),  capra  (goat),  ovis  (sheep),  sus  (pig). 

To  study  chemistry,  botany,  astronomy — in  fact, 
all  of  the  sciences  —  intelligently,  we  must  know 
something  of  Latin,  and  this  knowledge  is  in  de- 
mand when  we  pursue  courses  in  art  or  music.  The 
lawyer,  doctor  and  physician  each  needs  this  infor- 
mation as  much  as  the  linguist  and  professor.  The 
Latin  fairy  even  helps  us  to  become  good  spellers 
as  well  as  etymologists  and  philologists. 

Professor  Sabin,  in  this  eye-opener  to  Latin  ben- 
efits, gives  a  list  of  Latin  words  which  we  now  use 
and  which  have  not  been  changed  since  the  time  of 


186    MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

the  Romans.  Some  of  the  words  in  this  list  are  : 
census,  interim,  dictum,  ultimatum,  superior,  infe- 
rior, consul,  actor,  agitator,  animal,  cantata,  con- 
servator, dictator,  doctor,  error,  honor,  horror,  hu- 
mor, minus,  plus,  senior,  victor,  orator,  pendulum, 
murmur. 

Putting  Children  to  Sleep  with  Vergil's 
",32neid." — In  my  book,  Natural  Education,  I  tell 
of  my  success  in  putting  Winifred  to  sleep  through 
scanning  the  first  ten  lines  of  Vergil's  JEneid. 
Vergil  has  long  been  famous  as  a  poet,  but  I  yearn 
to  give  him  added  glory  as  a  baby  pacifier.  A  baby 
will  get  drowsy  (even  as  some  grown-ups)  when  he 
hears  Latin  verse  scanned,  but  he  will  also  get  some 
idea  of  rhythm,  and  to  Winifred's  hearing  Vergil 
in  the  cradle  I  attribute  her  ability  to  make  rhymes 
of  respectable  meter  when  she  was  yet  a  baby. 

Many  so-called  educated  people  are  constantly 
getting  into  trouble  because  they  do  not  know  the 
meaning  of  various  abbreviations  and  of  short  Latin 
phrases  which  are  in  daily  use. 

Teaching  Latin  Phrases. — Children  of  four 
and  five  years  of  age  can  be  taught  such  Latin 
phrases  as  are  found  in  the  back  of  the  dictionary, 
on  coins,  tombstones,  monuments,  buildings,  etc.  At 
an  early  age  the  little  one  learns  these  phrases  with 
no  trouble,  and  best  of  all  he  remembers  in  old  age 
what  he  learned  in  babyhood. 

When  the  adolescent  period  arrives  and  he  is  in 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION  187 

the  high  school  translating  Caesar  and  Cicero  he  will 
find  this  memorizing  much  more  difficult. 

If  Latin  is  to  be  of  practical  value,  I  believe  that 
it  would  be  far  better  to  teach  children  the  general 
construction  of  this  language  through  committing 
to  memory  beautiful  passages  in  Latin  verse  and 
sayings  from  the  old  philosophers,  rather  than  to 
make  them  translate  passages  from  the  Latin  class- 
ics and  learn  all  the  rules  in  the  Latin  grammar. 

I  am  very  grateful  to  my  father  for  having  taught 
me  sayings  from  the  old  masters  and  phrases  which 
are  used  in  law,  medicine,  botany,  etc.,  and  I  have 
tried  to  give  Winifred  a  practical  knowledge  of  the 
Latin  tongue  through  playing  games  or  teaching  her 
Latin  names  of  the  objects  around  her. 

Expressions  in  Latin  which  well-informed  people 
are  supposed  to  know,  and  which  children  can  easily 
learn : 

Veni,  vidi,  vici  (I  came,  I  saw,  I  conquered) 

E  pluribus  unum  (One  out  of  many) 

Fade  in  pace  (Go  in  peace) 

Vanum  et  mutabile  semper  femina  (Woman  is 
ever  fickle  and  changeable) 

Verbum  sat  sapienti  (A  word  to  the  wise  is  suf- 
ficient) 

Magnum  bonum  (A  good  thing) 

Prima  facie  (At  first  sight) 
.  Modus  operandi  (Method  of  working) 

Bona  fide  (In  good  faith) 


188    MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

Sub  rosa  (Under  the  rose — privately) 
Inter  nos  (Between  ourselves) 
rAd  nauseam  (To  disgust) 
'Alter  ego  (Another  self) 
Casus  belli  (That  which  causes  war) 
Cum  grano  sails  (With  a  grain  of  salt) 
Dei  gratia  (By  the  grace  of  God) 
Deo  volenie  (God  willing) 
Mirabile  dictu  (Wonderful  to  say) 
In  toto  (In  whole) 
Ante  bellum  (Before  the  war) 
Post  mortem  (After  death) 
Sine  die  (Without  a  day  being  appointed) 
Vox  populi  (The  voice  of  the  people) 
Carpe  diem  (Seize  the  present  opportunity) 
Audaces  fortuna  juvat  (Fortune  helps  the  bold) 
Festina  lente  (Make  haste  slowly) 
Maxime  vero  (Yes,  indeed) 
Euge  (Bravo!) 
Adde  gradum  (Hurry) 
Bene  est  (It  is  well) 
Longe  (Far  away) 
Statim  (At  once) 
Novus  homo  (An  upstart) 
Tempus  fugit  (Time  flies) 
Terra  firma  (The  firm  land) 
Terra  incognita  (Unknown  land) 
Sine  mora  (Without  delay) 

Sic  transit  gloria  mundi  (Thus  passes  away  the 
glory  of  the  world) 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION    189 

Sic  semper  tyrannis  (Ever  thus  to  tyrants) 

Vive  sine  invidia  (Live  free  from  envy) 

Dux  femina  facti  (Woman  leads  the  way) 

In  nuce  (In  a  nutshell) 

In  dubio  (In  doubt) 

In  hoc  signo  vinces  (In  this  sign  thou  shalt  con- 
quer) 

Fac  simile  (Exact  imitation) 

Gaudeamus  igitur  (Therefore  let  us  rejoice) 

Ad  rem  (To  the  point) 

Alma  mater  (Kind  mother) 

Amor  patriae  (Love  of  country) 

Pro  bono  publico  (For  the  public  good) 

Vincit  omnia  veritas  (Truth  conquers  all  things) 

Vide  et  crede  (See  and  believe) 

Et  cetera  (And  the  rest) 

Vulius  est  index  animi  (The  countenance  is  the 
index  of  the  mind) 

Lares  et  penates  (Household  gods) 

Si  Deus  nobiscum  qui  contra  nos  (If  God  be  with 
us  who  shall  be  against  us?) 

Teaching  the  Child  to  Form  Simple  Latin 
Sentences. — If  the  child  be  a  little  girl,  teach  her 
to  say  "Parva  sum,  magna  sum,  mala  sum,  bella 
sum,  faceta  sum,  alba  sum,  nigra  sum,  obesa  sum" 

If  a  little  boy  is  learning  his  Latin  lesson  he  will 
of  course  say:  "Parvus  sum,  magnus  sum,  malus 
sum,  bellus  sum,  facetus  sum,  albus  sum,  nigrus  sum, 
obesus  sum." 

Now  give  the  child  a  few  nouns  in  the  first  de- 


190    MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

clension,  and  let  the  little  one  build  larger  sentences, 
as :  ff  Puella  pan'a  sum,  puella  bona  sum,  or  "Parvus 
puer  sum,  bonus  puer  sum" 

Next  give  the  child  the  verb  "to  be"  in  the  third 
person  singular  and  with  it  a  few  proper  names  and 
pronouns  so  he  can  talk  about  various  characters, 
as :  "Cornelia  puella  mala  est,  Julia  puella  bona  est," 
etc. 

It  will  be  easy  for  the  young  student  to  learn  the 
other  parts  of  the  verb  "to  be"  after  he  knows  how 
to  say  sum  and  est. 

Teach  him  to  conjugate  the  verb  "to  be"  in  the 
present  tense  of  the  indicative  mood.  Sum  (I  am), 
es  (thou  art),  est  (he  is),  sumus  (we  are),  estis 
(you  are),  sunt  (they  are). 

The  pupil  is  now  ready  to  learn  something  about 
the  six  cases,  but  he  should  become  familiar  with 
the  nominative  and  accusative  before  learning  of 
the  others.  To  gain  this  knowledge,  give  him  the 
verb  Habeo  (I  have)  and  with  it  a  number  of  nouns 
which  interest  children.  'He  can  easily  form  such 
sentences  as  Pilam  habeo  (I  have  a  ball),  Simiam 
habeo  (I  have  a  monkey),  etc. 

Playing  Dinner  Party. — Some  of  my  pupils 
like  to  play  dinner  party.  They  learn  that  a  table 
is  mensa,  and  on  it  they  put  bella  rosa.  Then  one 
child  pretends  to  be  a  chicken  and  says  Pullus  sum; 
others  say  Vacca  sum  (I  am  beef),  'Aqua  sum  (I 
am  water),  Porous  sum  (I  am  pork),  Piscis  sum  (I 
am  fish),  Pants  sum  (I  am  bread),  Fructus  sum  (I 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION    191 

am  fruit),  Caseussum  (I  am  cheese),  Dukes  sum  (I 
am  candies),  Nuces  sum  (I  am  nuts),  Sal  sum  (I 
am  salt). 

Playing  Zoo. — Another  way  to  amuse  and 
teach  the  children  is  to  give  each  one  the  name  of 
an  animal.  The  child  who  plays  the  part  of  Leo 
(lion)  leads.  Each  child  must  say  his  name  before 
he  can  join  the  procession  of  Latin  animals.  Thus 
Leo  sum  (I  am  a  lion),  Tigris  sum  (I  am  a  tiger), 
Capra  sum  (I  am  a  goat),  Ovis  sum  (I  am  a  sheep) , 
Sus  sum  (I  am  a  pig),  Vulpes  sum  (I  am  a  fox), 
Mus  sum  (I  am  a  mouse) ,  Cams  sum  (I  am  a  dog), 
Fells  sum  (I  am  a  cat),  Equus  sum  (I  am  a  horse), 
Lepus  sum  (I  am  a  rabbit),  Vermls  sum  (I  am  a 
worm),  Ursus  sum  (I  am  a  bear),  Elephantus  sum 
(I  am  an  elephant),  Simla  sum  (I  am  a  monkey) . 

After  children  learn  the  verb  "to  be"  and  the 
verb  "to  have"  and  a  few  nouns  we  may  teach  them 
a  few  conjunctions  and  adverbs  so  as  to  build  longer 
sentences.  I  would  suggest  the  use  of  in  (in),  cum 
(with),  ex  (out  of),  et  (and),  nam  (for),  non 
(not),  ibi  (there),  fortasse  (perhaps),  statim  (at 
once) . 

Teaching  Scanning  with  a  Ball. — All  boys 
love  to  play  ball,  and  while  tossing  a  ball  back  and 
forth  they  can  be  taught  to  scan  selections  from 
Vergil's  JEneld. 

Declensions  in  Rhythmic  Exercises. — Chil- 
dren can  early  be  taught  the  Latin  declensions  as  a 
sort  of  rhythmic  exercise.  Last  winter  while  I  was 


192  MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

coasting  down  a  long  hill  with  Billy  Walsh  he  and 
I  sang  the  declension  of  "rosa"  and  we  had  as  much 
fun  as  if  he  had  gone  down  the  hill  in  the  ordinary 
squealing  fashion. 

In  teaching  declensions,  however,  be  sure  to  se- 
lect words  which  interest  children  and  not  the  words 
usually  given  in  the  vocabularies. 

In  my  book,  Natural  Education,  I  tell  how  Wini- 
fred has  made  a  number  of  what  she  calls  "Baby 
Books"  from  words  of  Latin  parents.  She  finds 
this  seeking  for  "babies"  in  her  favorite  dictionary, 
The  New  Standard,  a  delight  even  to  this  day,  and 
in  her  study  of  philology  this  work  in  etymology 
proves  a  great  help. 

Teaching  Etymology  and  Philology. — Show 
the  child  some  Latin  word,  such  as  Circular e.  Then 
lead  him  to  the  dictionary  and  show  him  all  of  the 
words  in  English  which  are  derived  from  this  Latin 
parent.  Naturally  he  will  become  interested  in  the 
study  of  etymology  and  this  will  lead  him  to  the 
dictionary  habit,  which  jvill  make  him  better  in- 
formed day  after  day. 

After  learning  the  Latin  root,  if  he  is  of  an  in- 
quisitive mind  he  will  wish  to  learn  more  words  in 
other  languages  derived  from  this  root  and  thus  be- 
come a  student  of  philology. 

Winifred  delights  in  filling  small  note-books  with 
words  derived  from  Latin  roots.  At  the  top  of  the 
page  she  places  the  mother  Latin  word ;  directly  be- 
neath, all  the  baby  English  words;  and  in  another 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION    193 

column  she  puts  Esperanto,  French  or  other  words 
derived  from  the  same  mother. 

Some  of  the  mother  words  which  I, find  in  one  of 
Winifred's  books  are:  Bellum,  magnus,  donum, 
memoria,  regina,  parva,  virtus,  post,  amare,  circu- 
lare,  femina,  pecunia,  hortus,  diligent  a,  nauta,  sa~ 
nus,  tabula,  herba,  superus,  bonus,  pater,  mater, 
frater,  multus,  mains,  simia,  puer,  regina,  aqua, 
umbra,  equus,  tabula,  albus,  longus,  silva,  porta, 
columba,  terra,  ursa,  uva,  luna,  stella,  culina,  vinum, 
ovum,  ramus,  locus,  villa,  ignis,  hora,  annus,  dies, 
vox,  rex,  manus,  primus,  stilus,  domus. 

All  of  these  words  Winifred  found  in  her  favorite 
Nutting  Primer  and  each  of  these  words  has  a 
goodly  number  of  children,  both  in  English  and  in 
other  tongues. 

The  Nutting  Primer. — Latin  has  been  made  a 
torture  to  children  through  the  usual  method  of  in- 
struction by  means  of  set  rules  and  translation  of 
old-time  classics.  Professor  Nutting  has  proven 
that  a  Latin  primer  can  be  made  as  interesting  as 
one  in  English;  and  if  the  teacher  plays  games  with 
her  pupils,  and  shows  them  the  practical  value  of  a 
knowledge  of  Latin,  they  will  soon  make  the  Ro- 
man's language  a  living  tongue. 

Excellent  Tools  for  the  Study  of  Latin 

The  Beginner's  Latin  Book  (Collar  and  Daniell). 
The  First  Latin  Book  (Collar  and  Daniell) . 
First-Year  Latin  (Collar  and  Daniell). 


194    MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

Lewis's  Elementary  Latin  Dictionary. 

Smith's  English-Latin  Dictionary. 

Andrews'  Latin-English  Dictionary. 

Hill's  Vest-Pocket  Latin-English  and  English- 
Latin  Dictionary. 

Anthon's  Latin-English  and  English-Latin  Die- 
iionary. 

Allen  and  Greenough's  Latin  Grammar. 

Harkness'  New  Latin  Reader. 

A  First  Book  in  Latin  (Tuell  and  Fowler). 

A  Latin  Primer  (Nutting). 

The  Relation  of  Latin  to  Practical  Life  (Sabin 
and  Woodruff). 


CHAPTER  XV 

TEACHING   ESPERANTO 

GOETHE  says :  "Wer  fremde  Sprachen  nicht 
kennt  weisst  nicht  von  seiner  eigenen"  (A  man 
who  has  no  acquaintance  with  foreign  languages 
knows  nothing  of  his  own).  We  must  know  some- 
thing of  our  brothers'  tongues  if  we  are  to  under- 
stand thoroughly  our  native  language.  This  knowl- 
edge should  come  to  us  be  fore,  the  twelfth  year,  as 
up  to  that  time,  covering  the  memory  period,  a  child 
can  learn  foreign  languages  with  little  trouble.  If 
parents  can  not  afford  native  teachers,  they  can  use 
language  phone  records  to  learn  the  pronunciation. 
Language  Taught  by  Natural  Method. — All 
languages  should  be  taught  by  the  natural  or  direct 
method.  Attempting  to  learn  foreign  tongues, 
through  the  study  of  grammar,  never  brings  a  real 
speaking  knowledge  of  any  language.  I  have  known 
students  to  study  French  for  years  at  college  and 
when.visiting  in  Paris  to  call  a  cocker  a  cochon  or  to 
make  equally  ridiculous  mistakes.  Their  eyes  were 
trained  to  read  and  to  translate,  but  when  they  heard 
French  spoken  they  could  not  understand  its  mean- 
ing. A  little  child,  who  spends  a  few  months  in 

195 


196    MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

France  or  Germany  and  plays  with  the  native  chil- 
dren, learns  to  express  his  ideas  in  the  foreign 
tongue  without  knowing  anything  about  the  scien- 
tific construction  of  the  language.  It  is  all  very 
well  to  know  how  to  read  and  translate  foreign 
tongues,  but  the  chief  use  of  any  language  is  for 
conversational  purposes,  and  the  grammar  method 
certainly  does  not  lead  to  this  end. 

Esperanto  in  Cradle. — I  think  that  it  is  a  great 
mistake  to  wait  until  the  high-school  age  before 
teaching  children  Latin  and  foreign  tongues  and 
then  to  give  this  information  through  grammar,  a 
hideous  nightmare  to  most  students.  If  all  children 
were  taught  to  speak  Esperanto  while  they  were  still 
babies  and  then  given  a  speaking  knowledge  of 
French,  German  and  Spanish  before  high-school  age 
they  would  be  equipped  for  life's  wrork  without  trav- 
eling the  painful  grammar  route. 

In  fact  it  would  not  be  necessary  to  teach  a  child 
any  language  but  his  native  tongue  and  Esper- 
anto if  we  could  persuade  all  parents  of  other 
countries  to  teach  their  children  this  language  in 
addition  to  their  native  tongue.  Then  we  would 
have  an  international  medium  of  communication 
which  would  bring  knowledge  of  science,  literature 
and  art  to  our  very  doors  and  save  us  many  years 
of  study  in  gaining  other  languages. 

Two-thirds  of  Our  Lives  Required  to  Learn 
Languages. — Nearly  two-thirds  of  an  educated 
person's  life  must  be  spent  in  studying  languages,  if 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION    197 

he  is  to  have  what  is  considered  a  really  broad  edu- 
cation; but  think  of  the  work  he  could  do  along 
other  lines  if  he  were  provided  with  a  fairy  tongue 
as  a  sesame  to  the  fount  of  universal  knowledge ! 

Need  of  International  Tongue. — Ever  since 
the  Babelization  of  tongues  in  the  Land  of  Shinar, 
people  have  realized  the  need  of  an  international 
language  and  many  hundreds  of  so-called  universal 
tongues  have  been  invented.  The  Egyptians  had  a 
language  called  the  Demos  or  tongue  of  the  common 
people  which  was  known  by  all  people  who  traded 
in  Egypt.  It  was  through  this  language,  as  it  ap- 
peared on  the  Rosetta  stone,  that  the  hieroglyphics 
were  deciphered. 

The  Indians  have  always  had  a  common  tongue 
called  Chinook,  and  the  Pigeon  English  of  China 
has  been  understood  by  traders  from  various  coun- 
tries for  many  years.  But  these  languages  can  not 
express  higher  thoughts.  They  are  used  simply  to 
express  a  few  thoughts  concerning  trading  and  the 
more  sordid  things  of  life. 

Peter  the  Great  Saw  Need  of  Esperanto. — 
Peter  the  Great  was  the  first  European  ruler  to 
realize  the  great  need  of  a  sort  of  code  sign  lan- 
guage. As  he  traveled  about,  striving  to  gain  in- 
formation concerning  other  countries,  he  was  se- 
verely handicapped  in  not  being  able  to  speak  in 
various  tongues.  When  he  returned  to  his  native 
land  he  offered  the  largest  reward  ever  offered  by 
stingy  Peter  for  an  international  tongue.  None  of 


198    MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

the  languages  submitted  to  him  was  satisfactory, 
and  he  died  without  gaining  his  great  desire.  After 
his  time,  many  other  monarchs  offered  similar  re- 
wards, but  no  language  became  universal  because  of 
international  jealousies. 

Volapuk,  the  Nightmare  Language. — In  the 
past  century  over  one  thousand  international  lan- 
guages were  invented,  and  one  of  them  called  Vola- 
puk spread  over  a  considerable  part  of  Europe.  It 
was  invented  by  a  great  linguist,  Bishop  Schleyer, 
after  he  had  eaten  an  indigestible  supper  and 
dreamed  this  nightmare  tongue.  It  was  so  difficult 
that  only  scholars  could  learn  it. 

But  now  we  have  a  language  so  simple  that  its 
general  principles  can  be  learned  in  a  few  hours, 
and  having  such  a  language,  it  is  our  duty  as  Chris- 
tian men  and  women,  mothers  and  fathers,  to  mas- 
ter this  language  and  to  teach  it  to  our  children  in 
the  hope  of  bringing  peace  into  the  world  through 
a  better  understanding  of  our  foreign  brothers. 

Wars  Caused  by  Lingual  Misunderstandings. 
— Wars  have  been  caused  by  lingual  misunderstand- 
ings, and  we  can  never  settle  our  differences  at  a 
general  peace  tribunal  while  we  must  employ  inter- 
preters. We  must  have  a  peace  tongue,  and  I  be- 
lieve that  Esperanto,  which  was  invented  by  Doctor 
Zamenhof  as  a  messenger  of  peace,  will  eventually 
be  the  peace  tongue  used  at  international  confer- 
ences. It  has  already  played  a  very  important  part 
in  many  international  meetings,  and  at  the  Esper- 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION    199 

anto  Congresses,  which  have  been  held  in  a  number 
of  countries,  there  have  been  representatives  of  all 
nations  who  found  no  difficulty  in  conversing  with 
one  another. 

Praise  of  Esperanto. — The  beauty  of  Esper- 
anto is  that  it  is  not  a  Frankenstein  tongue,  but  is 
founded  on  two  hundred  of  the  most  aristocratic 
roots.  Knowing  these  roots  and  sixteen  simple 
rules,  any  one  will  be  able  to  converse,  read  and 
write  in  this  language.  [Tolstoi  learned  to  read 
Esperanto  in  one  hour.  Max  Nordau  grasped  its 
meaning  in  less  than  two  hours.  We  may  not  have 
the  brains  of  a  Jolstoi  or  Nordau,  but  we  can 
easily  gain  a  knowledge  of  the  formation  of  this 
language  so  as  to  ask  for  the  ordinary  things  to  eat 
and  express  simple  thoughts  in  two  weeks. 

No  Difference  in  Accent. — Another  delightful 
feature  of  Esperanto  is  that  people  of  all  nations 
speak  it  with  very  little  difference  in  accent.  At 
one  time  I  had  representatives  of  seventeen  nations 
on  the  stage  at  Carnegie  Institute.  Each  spoke  in 
his  native  tongue,  saying,  "I  love  you."  The  com- 
mingling of  sounds  was  almost  equivalent  to  groans 
and  grunts  of  many  animals.  Then  Winifred  spoke 
to  each  in  Esperanto,  and  when  all  said,  "Mi  amas 
vin"  (I  love  you)  in  Esperanto  there  was  little  to 
distinguish  in  accent. 

Simple  Verbs. — Nearly  all  languages  have  dif- 
ficult verb  constructions,  but  in  Esperanto  any  baby 
ca'n  learn  to  conjugate  the  verbs,  as  they  do  not 


200  MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

change  in  the  different  persons.  We  say  Mi  amas 
(I  love),  Vi  amas  (You  love),  Li  amas  (He  loves), 
Ni  amas  (We  love),  III  amas  (They  love). 

Like  Spanish. — The  vowel  sounds  are  eupho- 
nious, being  like  those  of  Latin,  and  the  diphthongs 
are  simple.  Any  one  knowing  Spanish  can  read  this 
language  without  difficulty,  and  the  student  of 
French  and  German  has  little  difficulty  in  translat- 
ing much  of  this  general  tongue. 

Jingle  to  Teach  Esperanto. — The  following 
jingle  has  been  written  by  Winifred  to  show  the 
pronunciation  of  vowels  and  diphthongs  and  the 
simplicity  of  the  verbs.  Learn  it,  and  one-half  the 
battle  toward  knowing  how  to  read  Esperanto  has 
been  won : 

Esperanto  Grammar  in  a  Nutshell 
(Written  in  1910) 

All  the  nouns  must  end  in  O, 
Akvo  (water),  banto  (bow), 
While  adjectives  all  end  in  A, 
Bona  patro  (Good  papa), 
And  adverbs  end  in  letter  E, 
Rapide  (in  a  rapid  way). 
Soon  I'll  teach  the  vowels  to  you, 
Saying,  "Pa,  may  we  go,  too  ?" 
And  the  diphthongs,  au,  aj,  oj, 
We  pronounce  as  "Thou,  my  boy." 
Best  of  all  the  charming  verbs, 
They  can  never  wreck  our  nerves 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION    201 

With  exceptions  cruel,  unkind. 
For  the  same  you'll  always  find 
Blessed  AS,  IS,  OS,  US,  U, 
Endings  that  are  ever  true. 

Simple  Rules  to  Remember  in  Teaching 
Esperanto 

All  nouns  end  in  o — patro  (  father) . 

All  adjectives  end  in  a — patra  (paternal). 

All  adverbs  end  in  e — patre  (paternally). 

The  present  infinitive  of  verbs  ends  in  i — ami 
(to  love). 

Present  tense  of  verbs  as  in  all  persons — mi  amas 
Kllove). 

Past  tense  is — mi  amis  (I  loved). 

Future  tense  os — vi  amos  (you  will  love). 

Conditional  us — ni  amits  (we  should  love). 

Imperative  u — amu  min  (love  me). 

Plurals  end  in  /. 

When  we  use  nouns  in  the  objective  or  accusative 
case  we  add  an  n  to  show  the  case.  Thus  we  say : 
"Mi  havas  libron"  (I  have  a  book).  Book  is  the 
object  and  is  there f6re  in  the  accusative  case  and 
shows  its  case  by  the  objective  ending  n. 

The  accent  is  always  on  the  next  to  the  last  syl- 
lable. 

The  vowels  a,  e,  i,  o,  u  are  pronounced  ah,  ay,  eef 
oh,  ooh,  as  in  the  sentence :  Pa,  may  we  go  too? 
Dipthongs  au,  af,  of,  eu,  ej  are  pronounced  ow, 


202     MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

as  in  now;  i,  as  in  my;  oy,  as  in  boy;  eh-ooh;  a,  as 
in  fate. 

The  letters  b,  d,  f,  g,  li,  k,  I,  m,  n,  o,  p,  r,  s,  t,  u, 
and  y  are  pronounced  as  in  English. 

A  is  like  a  in  father. 

C  is  like  ts  in  tsar. 

Q,  W,  *,  y  are  not  used  in  the  Esperanto  alphabet. 

There  are  twenty-eight  letters. 

Two  c's,  two  g's,  two  h's,  two  fs,  two  s's,  two  u's. 

The  second  sound  of  these  letters  is  represented 
by  an  inverted  caret  being  used  over  them  or  by  the 
letter  h  following  them.  Thus  do  or  chio  is  pro- 
nounced Chee-oh;  logi  (lo-ghee). 

In  speaking  of  the  letters  they  are  pronounced  as 
follows : 

A  (ah)  H  (hho).  P  (po) 

B  (bo)  I  (ee)  R  (ro) 

C  (tso)  IJ  (yo)  S  (so) 

C  (cho)  J  (zhoy  §  (sho) 

D  (do)  K  (koy  T  (to) 

E  (ay)  L  (lo)  '  U  (ooh) 

F(fo)  M(mo)'  tr(ooh-oh) 

G  (Go)  N  (no)'  V  (vo) 

&  (Jo)  O  (oh)'  £  (zo) 
H(ho) 

These  letters  may  be  easily  learned  by  singing 
them  to  the  air  of  Zu  Lauterbach. 

A  Help  in  Teaching  Latin. — The  noted  Latin 
scholar,  Doctor  D.  O.  S.  Lowell,  of  the  Roxbury 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION  203 

Latin  School,  has  experimented  with  students  and 
finds  that  they  learn  Latin  more  readily  if  they  first 
learn  Esperanto,  which  is  composed  of  many  roots 
from  this  classic  tongue. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

TEACHING  APPRECIATION  OF  ART 

THE  progressives  in  the  educational  world  are 
awakening  to  the  idea  that  it  is  ridiculous  to 
wait  until  the  high-school  age  in  order  to  teach 
children  something  of  art.  A  few  days  ago  I  vis- 
ited the  ward  schools  of  Wilmington,  North  Caro- 
lina, in  company  with  the  superintendent  of  city 
schools,  Doctor  John  J.  Blair.  As  a  progressive 
and  a  lover  of  children,  he  believes  in  having  copies 
of  the  best  works  of  art  in  all  the  grade  schools,  and 
he  has  contributed  a  number  of  beautiful  paintings 
to  several  of  these  schools.  The  children  are  en- 
couraged to  look  at  the  pictures,  to  pass  comments, 
and  to  give  their  opinions  as  to  the  best  pictures  in 
each  school  building. 

Perry  Print  Scrap  Books. — If  parents  can  not 
have  expensive  pictures,  they  can  at  least  have  good 
prints  from  copies  of  the  masterpieces,  and  children 
may  become  familiar  with  the  works  of  great  mas- 
ters through  the  Perry  pictures.  I  know  one  little 
girl  who  arranged  a  scrap  book  with  these  pictures, 
and  she  finds  the  greatest  delight  in  coloring  them 

204 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION  205 

and  in  asking  questions  about  the  artists  and  the 
meaning  of  his  pictures.  All  unconsciously,  with- 
out any  mental  strain,  she  is  gaining  a  good  educa- 
tion in  art  and  the  beauties  of  nature,  while  her 
imaginative  qualities  are  developed  through  hearing 
about  many  of  the  ancient  Roman,  Grecian  and 
Scandinavian  myths,  depicted  by  masters. 

Try  to  make  your  children  interested  in  the  lives 


A  hexagon  design 


206    MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

of  great  artists  by  telling  them  stories  dealing  par- 
ticularly with  the  childhood  days  of  these  artists. 

Tracing. — Children  may  begin  early  to  have 
some  idea  of  the  shape  of  objects  about  them  by 
tracing  them.  They  can  trace  leaves  and  the  vari- 
ous geometrical  figures  to  be  found  in  any  home, 
such  as  the  round  inkstand,  glass,  saucer,  cup,  plate, 
square  boxes,  books  shaped  like  rectangles,  etc. 
They  love  also  to  make  tracings  of  leaves  on  blue- 
prints which  they  can  paste  in  scrap  books. 

As  I  have  shown,  they  can  learn  to  make  many 
geometrical  designs  from  coins  of  different  sizes 
and  from  small  squares,  angles,  rectangles,  hexa- 
gons, pentagons,  octagons,  etc. 

Making  Designs. — Several  of  my  pupils  have 
made  excellent  designs  for  wall-paper  and  carpets, 
using  nothing  but  geometrical  figures.  Winifred 
finds  special  delight  in  making  designs  for  windows. 
She  has  made  a  number  of  large  doll  scrap  books, 
and  some  of  the  windows  in  the  various  rooms  are 
iquite  remarkable  for  originality  if  not  for  great 
beauty. 

Visiting  Art  Museums. — To  open  the  chil- 
dren's eyes  to  the  beauty  of  art,  show  them  good 
pictures  and  pieces  of  sculpture  and  take  them  as 
often  as  possible  to  visit  art  museums.  While  visit- 
ing in  these  museums  do  not  try  to  impress  the  child 
only  with  the  beauty  of  the  work  before  him,  but 
first  arouse  his  interest  by  telling  him  the  mythical 
or  historical  tales  connected  with  these  works  of  art. 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION    20/3 

Tell  him  of  the  celestial  bodies  named  for  some  of 
the  Greek  figures  he  sees  immortalized  through  the 
works  of  sculpture.  Interest  him  in  the  life  of  the 
sculptor  who  made  these  great  works,  and  if  you 
have  the  time,  let  him  sit  down  near  one  of  the  great 
works  of  art  and  try  to  make  a  duplicate  of  a  bit  of 
plasticine 

When  we  lived  in  Pittsburgh,  Winifred  spent  a 
'few  hours  each  week  in  the  beautiful  Hall  of  Sculp- 
ture, given  to  Vulcan's  City  by  Andrew  Carnegie. 
She  would  attempt  to  draw  copies  of  these  great 
works,  and  she  succeeded  in  making  quite  a  number 
of  good  plasticine  models. 

In  our  Natural  Educational  Schools  we  spend  a 
little  time  each  day  looking  at  copies  of  great  works 


These  designs  made  by  Winifred  Stoner,  Jr.,  when  five  years  of  age 


208    MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

of  art  or  postals  representing  works  of  architecture 
through  the  stereoscope.  The  same  plan  has  been 
tried  in  teaching  geography. 

The  Mirrorscope. — Winifred  has  a  mirror- 
scope  and  in  the  evenings  she  often  invites  her 
young  friends  to  see  works  of  art,  while  I  give 
short  talks  about  artists  and  their  subjects. 

Game  of  What  Is  It? — To  familiarize  children 
with  the  work  of  the  masters,  use  the  Perry  prints 
and  play  "What  Is  It?"  Count  out  the  position  of 
the  different  children,  making  one  the  head  and  the 
others  second,  third,  etc.,  until  the  foot  is  reached. 
Show  head  pupil  a  picture.  If  he  can  name  it  and 
its  author  he  gets  it  to  keep;  if  not,  Number  Two 
gets  the  chance  to  try  to  win  the  picture  for  a 
trophy.  At  the  end  of  the  game  the  pupil  who  is  at 
the  head  wins  the  game  if  he  can  name  the  subject 
and  author  of  all  pictures  he  has  won. 

Pencils  Not  for  Scribbling. — Many  children 
work  destruction  to  wall-paper  and  woodwork  in 
the  home  by  scratching  with  pencils  on  everything 
they  can  reach.  Teach  your  child  that  a  pencil  is  a. 
useful  drawing  instrument  with  which  he  can  write 
his  name  or  draw  nice  pictures  on  a  piece  of  clean 
white  paper.  The  child  will  thus  be  inspired  with 
the  desire  to  write  his  name.  He  will  take  pleasure 
in  striving  to  make  imitations,  to  create  some  design, 
and  he  will  associate  the  pencil  with  white  paper 
and  not  with  house  furnishings. 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION    209 

Froebel  says : 

"The  things  a  child  can  make 
May  crude  and  worthless  be ; 

It  is  his  impulse  to  create, 
Should  gladden  thee." 

The  first  drawings  of  a  child  may  not  delight  the 
parents,  but  they  show,  desire  to  create  and  should 
be  encouraged. 

Designs  with  Sticks. — Before  the  baby  can 
hold  a  pencil  in  a  steady  fashion  he  can  begin  to 
make  designs  through  placing  sticks  of  various 
colors  in  different  positions.  Playing  with  these 
sticks  leads  to  a  knowledge  of  geometrical  truths; 
and  also  develops  an  idea  of  form  and  structure. 

Drawings  in  Sand. — Our  ancestors  made  their 
first  drawings  on  sand,  and  baby  can  be  taught  to 
create  forms  upon  a  sand-board  before  he  learns  to 
use  a  pencil.  Wet  the  sand  and  smooth  it  with  a 
rolling-pin.  Then  give  baby  a  pointed  stick  such 
as  a  manicuring  orange-wood  stick  or  a  pen-holder, 
show  him  how  to  draw  a  box,  a  daisy,  or  the  letters. 
He  will  find  great  amusement  with  his  sand  slate, 
just  as  little  children  in  ancient  days  found  pleasure 
in  being  so  instructed.  The  little  boys  and  girls  who 
lived  in  Egypt,  India  and  Rome  of  the  long  ago 
wrote  on  sand  or  used  pebbles  to  write  on  rough 
stones,  and  pebbles  are  a  delight  to  modern  kiddies. 

To  interest  children  further  in  drawing,  let  one 


210    MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

child  pretend  to  be  a  great  artist  and  another  child 
run  or  jump  in  front  of  the  artist,  who  is  supposed 
to  depict  the  action  of  his  playmate.  Most  of  the 
pictures  produced  by  these  youthful  artists  are  very 
crude,  devoid  of  proportion  or  perspective.  But,  as 
Professor  Jenny  B.  Merrill  has  said,  "Drawing  is, 
and  should  be,  largely  a  language,  a  means  of  ex- 
pressing the  child's  thoughts,"  and  as  the  child 
draws  these  pictures  and  explains  them  to  his 
teacher  he  creates  for  himself  a  world  within  and 
without,  for,  as  Froebel  wisely  said,  "What  man 
tries  to  represent  or  (Jo,  he  begins  to  understand." 

The  Chautauqua  Desk  a  Help.— The  Chautau- 
qua  Industrial  Art  Desk  is  a  great  help  in  arousing 
children's  interest  in  simple  designs,  which  almost 
any  child  can  draw. 

Drawing  Encourages  Expression  of  Original 
Ideas. — Drawing  is  the  best  means  of  encourag- 
ing a  child  to  express  his  own  ideas. 

Kate  Douglas  Wiggin  says:  "The  purposes  of 
drawing  are : 

(a)  The  education  of  the  eye; 

(b)  The  training  of  the  hand; 

(c)  The  training  of  the  mind; 

(d)  The  cultivation  of  another  mode  of  self- 
expression  ; 

(e)  The  acquirement  of  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciples of  art." 


CHAPTER  XVII 

DEVELOPING  THE  IMAGINATION  AND  A  SENSE 
OF  HUMOR 

IF  I  were  given  Solomon's  privilege  to  choose 
one  thing  from  all  the  good  things  of  this  life, 
I  would  ask  that  Fairy  Imagination  should  be  al- 
lowed to  dwell  with  me  through  my  life's  journey. 
Without  imagination  we  can  not  create.  We  stag- 
nate. No  progress  is  made.  It  is  useless  to  fill  our 
minds  with  an  accumulation  of  facts  if  we  can  not 
have  Fairy  Imagination  to  help  us  make  use  of 
these  facts. 

Little  children  who  have  not  been  molded  in  an 
educational  machine  system  are  all  highly  imagi- 
native, and  as  some  one  has  said,  "The  difference 
between  the  bright,  quick-witted  child  and  the  slow 
one,  usually  lies  in  the  greater  or  less  activity  of  the 
imaginative  faculty." 

Imagination  and  Cold  Facts. — The  happy  and 
the  beloved  man  is  he  who  goes  through  life  follow- 
ing the  dear  little  sprite  Imagination,  who  brightens 
the  darkest  roadway.  The  unhappy,  unattractive 
and  unpopular  man  is  he  who  walks  along  the  rough 
pathway  of  life  with  plain  cold  facts  for  his  guide. 

211 


212    MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

If  our  children  are  to  hold  the  imaginative  quality 
through  life  we  must  keep  dear  little  fairies  in  the 
home.  How  I  pity  the  child  reared  in  a  fairyless 
home !  To  drive  away  fairies  is  to  pour  cold  water 
on  the  youthful  creative  faculties. 

Imagination  Transfigures. — Stevenson  in  his 
poem,  My  Kingdom,  shows  what  imagination's 
touch  can  do  toward  transfiguring  the  most  com- 
mon things.  But  in  order  to  set  the  creative  faculty 
in  motion  we  parents  must  be  able  to  use  our  own 
imaginations  and  to  enter  into  the  spirit  of  imagi- 
native games  with  our  little  ones. 

Arousing  Imagination. — We  can  help  to  de- 
velop imagination  through  music,  which  enriches  the 
child's  soul  with  spiritual  inspiration.  We  can  show; 
him  great  works  of  art  while  walking  through  mu- 
seums and  art  galleries,  and  tell  him  of  the  myths 
which  inspired  these  works.  We  can  arouse  his 
sympathy,  which  comes  from  development  of  the 
imaginative  quality  in  putting  himself  in  the  place 
of  other  people  or  in  the  body  of  some  animal,  by 
taking  him  to  the  zoo  and  telling  him  fairy  tales 
concerning  animals  who  talk  in  books,  such  as  Joel 
Chandler  Harris's  Uncle  Remus,  Old  Mother  West 
Wind,  by  Thornton  W.  Burgess;  Merry  'Animal 
Tales,  by  Madge  A.  Bigham  and  Jungle.  Books,  by 
Kipling. 

Studying  the  stars  through  an  ordinary  opera- 
glass  is  a  great  educator,  and  if  the  parent  tells 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION    213 

children  of  the  Grecian,  Roman  and  Scandinavian 
myths  concerning  the  planets  and  stars,  seeds  of 
imagination  are  sown  which  make  the  study  of 
astronomy,  poetry,  sculpture  and  painting  sources 
of  joy  and  inspiration  through  life. 

Smiles  Go  Miles. — Smiles  go  miles  to  bring 
happiness  into  the  world.  Choler  and  spleen  are  no 
more  at  home  in  the  neighborhood  of  a  smile  than 
is  an  icicle  in  the  realms  of  a  tropical  sun.  There 
is  no  better  medicine  for  bad  temper  and  fits  of 
blues  than  an  atmosphere  where  the  Jolly  Fairy 
touches  lips  and  makes  them  curve  upward  in  good 
humor. 

There  is  nothing  on  earth  which  brings  more  joy 
to  mortals  than  smiles.  When  the  mother  sees  her 
baby  smiling  as  he  sleeps  in  the  cradle  she  rejoices 
because  she  believes  that  the  angels  are  whispering 
,to  her  heart's  treasure. 

I  believe  with  Carlyle  that  the  world  is  a  looking- 
glass.  If  we  smile  at  it,  it  smiles  in  return;  if  we 
frown  we  receive  a  frown  for  our  trouble.  It  is 
natural  for  us  to  smile  and  be  happy.  We  all  have 
our  sorrows,  our  skeletons  in  closets;  but  let  us 
keep  the  grim  monsters  under  lock  and  key  and 
smile  at  our  babies  instead  of  shedding  tears.  Babies 
who  are  smiled  at  will  smile  in  return  and  as  they 
grow  older  will  become  joy  radiators. 

Developing  a  Sense  of  Humor. — The  world 
loves  a  man  or  woman  who  can  make  us  smile,  but 


214  MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

real  humor  seems  to  be  scarce.  This  scarcity,  I  be- 
lieve, is  because  a  sense  of  humor  is  not  developed 
in  babyhood. 

I  believe  in  cultivating  this  sense  in  earliest  child- 
hood by  telling  children  funny  stories  and  seeing 
how  quickly  they  catch  the  humorous  thought. 
English  people  are  accused  of  being  slow  to  see  a 
joke,  but  from  my  experience  I  am  prone  to  believe 
that  real  wits  and  people  who  have  a  keenly  de- 
veloped sense  of  humor  are  hard  to  find  in  all 
countries. 

There  is  so  much  grouchiness  in  this  world  that 
some  scientists  believe  that  a  real  germ  or  grouch 


5  squares  3  8/10  squares 

Made  by  Winifred  to  teach  her  pupils  geometrical  figures  and  fractions 


MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION    215 

bug  makes  people  irritable.    Heredity  and  environ- 
ment are  the  real  causes. 

Doctor  John  A.  Brashear,  the  noted  Pittsburgh 
astronomer,  said  to  me  not  long  ago :  "I  wouldn't 
think  of  beginning  a  scientific  lecture  without  some 
fun.  I  tell  my  audience  a  joke — that  puts  them  into 
a  pleasant  state  of  mind  and  they  listen  more  at- 
tentively to  what  I  have  to  say." 

Laughter  Contagious. — Laughter  is  certainly 
contagious  and  may  be  imbibed  from  the  atmosphere 
of  our  environment 

I  have  taught  children  a  number  of  Edward 
Lear's  nonsense  rhymes,  and  they  are  particularly 
fond  of  The  Owl  and  the  Pussy  Cat  Went  to  Sea. 
The  meter  is  delightful,  and  they  can  imagine  how 
silly  a  big-eyed  owl  would  look  singing  to  a  pussy 
cat. 

The  Duck  and  the  Kangaroo,  Dame  Wiggins  of 
Lee  and  Her  Seven  Wonderful  Cats,  Old  Mother 
Hubbard,  Wynken,  Blyken  and  Nod,  Riley's  Poems 
of  Childhood  and  most  of  Mother  Goose  are  excel- 
lent to  develop  a  sense  of  humor. 

Smiles  Bring  Big  Returns. — We  all  know  that 
smiles  bring  big  returns  in  this  world.  Every  one 
seeks  a  smiler  instead  of  a  crosspatch.  It  is  surely 
our  duty  to  give  our  children  a  heritage  of  smiles 
and  to  keep  them  in  the  joy  of  a  smiling  atmosphere. 

The  Motto,  SMILE.— Recently  I  visited  in  a 
home  where  there  were  no  antagonistic  ether  rays. 


216  MANUAL  OF  NATURAL  EDUCATION 

All  was  happiness  and  harmony.  Above  the  huge 
fireplace  was  the  household  motto.  It  was  made 
out  of  twigs  and  formed  the  one  word  "S  MIL  E." 
If  this  could  be  the  motto  in  every  home  the 
demons  of  worry,  discontent  and  sorrow  would  be 
banished;  children  would  smile  instead  of  frown; 
and  we  would  be  a  healthier,  happier  race  of  men 
and  women. 

Life's  worth  while 

If  we  smile. 


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